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1793 = = = = 1893 



Celebration 



One Hundredth Anniversary 



Laying of the Corner Stone 



Capitol of the United States 



With Accounts of the Laying of the Original Corner 

Stone, in 1793, and of the Corner Stone 

of the Extension, in 1851 



General Duncan S. Walker 

Editor and Compiler 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1896 



02i 



•ifr 

WOOD now WILSON 
*0V. 25. 1939 



Contents 



Page. 

List of Ii^lustrations 5 

Prefatory Note 7 

Organization and Work: 

Generate Committee ii 

Subcommittees 12 

Officers of the Parade 18 

The Joint Committee 19 

The Programme: 

Concerts by Centenniai, Chimes 23 

Route of Parade 24 

Exercises at the Capitol 24 

Evening Concert 25 

Decorations and Illumination 26 

Grand Stands 27 

Street Decorations 28 

Centennial Medal 28 

Souvenir Invitations 28 

The Tablet 29 

Cost of the Celebration 29 

The Parade: 

Formation, Route, etc 33 

At the Capitol: 

The Invocation 44 

Chairman Gardner's Introduction 46 

President Cleveland's Address 47 

William Wirt Henry's Oration : 48 

The Vice-President's Address 66 

Speaker Crisp's Address 73 

Justice Brown's Address 74 

Commissioner Parker's Address 79 

Night Concert 86 

The Joint Committee: 

Personnel, Action, etc 91 

Congressional Action: 

Authorizing the Celebration loi 

Appointment of the Joint Committee 102 

Making the Day a Holiday, Granting Use of Flags, etc 103 

Resolutions to Attend 105 

Atte;ndance at the Celebration 106 

The Tablet 108 

Printing the Proceedings no 

3 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



The Capitoi,: ^^s^- 

With Some Notice of Its Architects "5 

The First Corner Stone: 

A Brief Account from a Contemporaneous Source 121 

Extension Corner Stone: 

The Programme 127 

The Procession '3" 

Ceremonies at the Capitoi, 13 ' 

Corner Stone Laid '33 

Address of B. B. French 134 

Daniel Webster's Oration 137 



List of Illustrations 



^ Page. 
Engraving, Laying Corner Stonk, 1793; Capitol, 1S51 and 1S93. .Frontispiece. 

Tympanum, Senate Wing, East Front y 

Tympanum, Main Buii^ding, East Front 8 

Bronze Stairway, Senate Wing 1 1 

MuRAi, Decoration— SHIE1.D 20 

Capitol, 1814. Half-Tone from an Old Print 21 

Lamp, Senate Wing 26 

Centicnnial Medal, Colored Print 28 

Seal of United States— Sketch ,0 

Parade, September 18, 1893 , , 

Mural Decoration, Ladies' Waiting Room, Sen.\te Wing 36 

Clock, House Wing ^„ 

Centennial Chorus, September 18, 1893 4, 

Statue of Civilization, East Front Main Building 46 

Ceremonies at Capitol September 18, 1S93— Half-Tone 47 

Corn Column, Ground Floor, Main Building 49 

Tobacco Column c-j 

Acanthus Column ^. 

Fence, Capitol Grounds, Since Removed eg 

Statue of " Peace," East Front, Main Building 53 

Statue of " War," East Front, Main Building 60 

Figure from Clock g, 

Skp;tch of Capitol 5, 

Capitol, 1893, North View, from Maltby House— Half-Tone 66 

Portico, West Front, Before Construction of Terraces 68 

Senate Clock _q 

Figure from Tympanum, Senate Wing 72 

Capitol, 1893, Northeast View— Half-Tone 73 

Mace, House of Representatives 7-, 

Statue of Chief Justice Marshall, West Front 74 

Supreme Court Room— Old Senate Chamber 77 

Marble Stairw.w, House Wing, Interior So 

Capitol, 1S93, Northwest View— Half-Tone 83 

Dome, from Pennsylvania Avenue 84 

Bronze Statue of Freedom, Dome of Capitol 85 

Clock, Senate Wing 86 

Naval Monument, formerly West Front, now at Annapolis 87 

Capitol, 1893, West Front— Half-Tone 91 

Corner of President's Room, Senate Wing 02 

Speaker's Desk, House of Representatives 03 

Old Hall, House of Representatives 95 

Marble Room, Senate Wing 96 

5 



6 Capitol Ccntcuiiial CcIcbnUion 

Page. 

Capitol, 1893, Southeast View— Half-Tonk loi 

Columbus Statue, East P^ront, Main Building 107 

Tablet Erected to Mark Corner Stone — Half-Tone io8- 

Mural Decoration 112 

Basement of Capitol "4 

Principal Story of Capitol "4 

Attic vStorv of Capitol i ' 4 

Bronze Newel Post, Ground Floor, Senate Wing 116 

Procp:ssion, September iS, 1793 — Half-Tone 119 

Figure from Tympanum, Senate Wing 123 

Covering to Air Ducts 1 24 

Capitol, 1828, East Front, from a Sketch by Charles Bullfinch— 

Half-Tone 125 

Greenough's Washington, formerly in Rotunda, now East Front. . 130 

Procession, July 4, 1851, from an Old Print 131 

Capitol, 1850, East Front, from an Old Lithograph 132 

Laving Corner Stone, 1851, from an Old Print 133 

Fountain, Exterior Wall of Grounds, West 136 

South Entrance to Senate Chamber '44 

Oration at Capitol, July 4, 1851, from an Old Cut 152 

Sketch of Washington in Embryo, 1792 152 

Map of Washington, 1893 . 152 

Engraving, Marble Clock, Statuary Hall 152 



^^........y^^ 




The Joint Coininittee created by the 
Congress to provide for the appropriate commemora- 
tion of the one hnndredth anniversary of the laying of 
the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States (see page 
103) organized with Senator Daniel W. Voorhees as Chairman 
and General Duncan S. Walker as Secretary. The plan and 
scope of the commemoration were agreed upon substantially as 
set forth in the accompanying description of the proceedings of 
the day, and the proper execution of the same was intrusted to 
the Committee of Citizens, by whom voluntary contributions suffi- 
cient to defray the expense of an appiopriate celebration of the 
anniversary were secured, subject to such directions and control as 
might be deemed necessary by the Joint Committee of Congress. 
The official programme of the ceremonies included a civic and 
military parade over the route taken by the procession on Septem- 
ber 18, 1793; prayer by the Right Reverend William Paret, 
Bishop of Maryland; introduction by the Chairman of the Citi- 
zens' Committee of the Chairman of Ceremonies, Grove;r Cleve- 
land, President of the United States; address by President 
Cleveland; oration by William Wirt Henry, of Virginia; 
address, "The United States Senate," by Adlai Ewing Steven- 
son, Vice-President of the United States; address, "The United 
States House of Representatives," by Charlp:s Frederick Crisp, 
Speaker of the House; address, "The Judiciary," by Mr. Justice 
Henry Billings Brown, United States Supreme Court; address, 
"The District of Columbia," by Myron M. Parker, Commis- 
sioner of the District of Columbia. The vocal music was rendered 
by a trained "Centennial Chorus" of fifteen hundred adult voices, 
and the instrumental music by the United States Marine Band. 

7 



8 Capital Ccutnnu'al Cflrbra/ioi/ 

In the evening there was an appropriate ilhnnination of the 
east front of the Capitol 1)uildint^ and a concert by the Centennial 
Chorns and the Marine Band. 

The programme agreed npon by the Joint Committee was faith- 
fnlly adhered to, and without any expense whatever to the United 
States Government. 

A full description of the proceedings of the day; a history of 
the legislation of Congress providing for the celebration, for the 
erection of a tablet to mark the corner stone, and for the publi- 
cation of the proceedings of the day; minutes of the meetings of 
the Joint Committee of Congress, and an account of the organi- 
zation and proceedings of the Citizens' Committee are included. 
It was thought ajjpropriate also to add the best accounts obtain- 
able of the ceremonies attending the laying of the corner stone of 
the original Capitol building, vSeptember i8, 1793, and of the cor- 
ner stone of the extension of the Capitol, July 4, 1851, and a con- 
densed history of the Capitol building, with a brief sketch of the 
architects engaged at different times in its construction and care. 




Organization and Work 



Organization and Work 




THE MOVEMENT for 
the commemoration of 
the centennial anniversary 
of the layino^ of the corner 
stone of the Nation's Capi- 
tol was initiated by a motion 
made by Mr. M. I. WelleR 
at a meeting of the East 
Washington Citizens' Association, September 3, 1891. The 
motion was agreed to, and the Association reqnested appropriate 
action by the Board of Commissioners of the District of Colnmbia. 
Accordingly a call was issued by the Commissioners for a public 
meeting, which was held on June 7, 1893. Hon. John W. Ross, 
President of the Board of Commissioners, presided, and selected a 
committee of fifty citizens to conduct the preparations for the cele- 
bration. This General Committee was composed and officered as 
follows: 

GENERAL COMMITTEE 



[In charge of all matters pertaining to the celebration, with power to appoint such officers, 
agents, and sulicomniittees as may be necessary.] 

Lawrence Gardner, Chairman. 

C. C. Glover, Vice-Chainnati. 

Edwin B. Hay, Seoriafy. 

M. I. Wel,i.ER, Corresponding^ Secretary. 

S. W. Woodward, Treasurer. 



J. W. Babson. 
H. L. BiscoE. 
H. V. Boynton. 
A. T. Britton. 



J. J. Darlington. 
Mills Dean. 
Harrison Dingman 
\V. C. Dodge. 



George T. Dun lop. 
J. J. Edson. 
W. J. Frizzell. 
William A. Gordon. 
II 



12 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



O. C. Green. 
H. A. Griswoi,d. 

JUIvES GUTHRIDGK. 

E. J. Hannan. 
CiiRi.s. HEiTRicn. 

J. Harrison Johnson. 

F. A. Lehman. 
Thomas F. Mii.tER. 
F. L. Moore. 
Theodore W. Novks. 
M. M. Parker. 



Charles F. Powei.i,. 
John W. Ro.ss. 
Samuel Ross. 
Isador]C Saks. 
James F. Scagcs. 
Henry Sherwood. 
Thomas Somerviuj'; 
A. R. Spoeford. 
Thomas W. Smith. 
Kllis Spear. 
A. F. vSperrv. 



W. J. vStpcphenson. 
Dr. J. M. Toner. 
Seymour \V. Tulloch. 
Duncan vS. Walker. 
B. H. Warner. 
J. W. Whelpley. 
Beri.\h Wilkins. 
L. C. Williamson. 
L. I). Wine. 
Marshall W. Wines. 
vS. vS. YoDER. 



SUBCOMMITTEES 

As the work of preparation progressed it was found necessary to 
appoint the following- subcommittees and to define their duties: 

INVITATION COMMITTEE 

[Under the direction of the General Committee, to prepare suitable invitations and issue the 
same to distinguished guests.] 

Gen. Duncan S. Walker, Chairman. 
Gen. H. V. BoynTon, Mce-Chairtiian. 
Marshall W. Wines, Secretarv. 



Commissioner John W. Ross. 
Commissioner M. M. Parker. 
Commissioner Charles F. Povvell. 
Chief Jnstice M. W. Fuller. 
Hon. Eppa Hunton. 



Hon. Barnes CompTon. 
Judge M. F. Morris. 
Prof. J. C. Welling. 
Frank Hatton. 
Theo. W. Noyes. 



CEREMONIES AT CAPITOL COMMITTEE 

[In charge of formulating a plan and determining all ceremonies and exercises at the Capitol, 
except exercises in charge of the p;vening Kntertainmcnt Committee.] 

B. H. W.\rnicr, Chairman. 

A. R. Spoeford, Mce-Chairman. 

Charles C. Gloyer. J. J. Darlington. 

Dr. Joseph M. Toner. Edward Clark. 

J. w. Whelpley. Mills Dean. 



COMMITTEE ON SCOPE 

[In charge of all matters pertaining to the celebration, such as determining the character of 
celebration, what committees are necessary, and their numbers.] 

J. W. Bab.son, Chairman. 
Dr. Joseph M. Toner. Mills Dean. 

M. I. Wellh;r. F. L. Moore. 

W. J. Stephenson. Henry Sherwood. 



Organization and JJ^ork 



13 



COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION 

[To prepare and obtain necessary legislation approved by the (General Coinniittee.] 

Lawrence Gardner, Oiainiiaii. 
Gen. Duncan S. Walker. Dr. Jo-SEPh M. Toner. 

RECEPTION COMMITTEE 

[To receive and extend proper courtesies to distinguished guests.] 

Beriah Wilkins, Cliainiian. 
Dr. WilIvIAM Tindali., Secretary. 

Members of the General CoviDiittcc 

Ex-Governor A. R. Shepherd. 



Ex-Mayor JameS G. BerrET. 
Ex-Mayor M. G. EMMERY. 
Ex-Maj'or Savees J. BowEN. 
Ex-Commis.sioner John H. Ketch.vm. 
Ex-Conmiis-sioner Thoma.s B. Bry.-vn. 
Ex-Conimissioner J. Dent. 
Ex-Commissioner T. P. Morgan. 
Ex-Commissioner J. R. WEST. 
Ex-Commissioner J. B. Edmond.s. 



Ex-Commi.ssioner Wieeiam B. Webb. 
Ex-Commissioner S. E. WheaTeey. 
Ex-Commissioner J. W^ DouGEAS.S. 
Ex-Coninii.s.sioner L. G. Hine. 
Ex-Connnissioner G. J. Lydeckp;r. 
Ex-Commissioner Wieeiam Ludeow. 
Ex-Commissioner C. W. Raymond. 
Ex-Commissioner H. M. Robert. 
Ex-Commissioner Wieeiam T. Ros.si<:el 



Gen. Nicholas Anderson. Dr. W^. W^. Godding. 



Maheon B. Ashford. 
Charles B. Bailey. 
John A. Baker. 
James L. Barbour 
L. J. Bates. 

C. J. BELL. 

M. W. Beveridge. 
Gen. William Birney. 
Chapin Brown. 
n. w\ burchpxl. 
Gen. Cyrus Bussey. 
John L. Carroll. 
H. H. Carter. 
Eugene Carusi. 
John Cassells. 
George W. Cochran. 
H. L. Cranford. 
William S. Crosby. 
Wash. Danenhower. 
Walter D. Davidge. 
Henry E. Davis. 
John T. Devine. 
J. Maury Dove. 
Charles C. Duncanson. 
James S. Edmonds. 
W. E. Edmonston. 
J. C. Ergood. 
Capt. G. J. Fiebeger. 
Albert F. Fox. 
Dr. Edw. M. Gallaudet. 
H. Wise Garnett. 



G. Clay Goodloe. 
George C. Gorham. 
John T. Given. 
William B. Gurley. 
Col. John Hay. 
Gen. S. S. HenklE. 
Col. Charles Heywocd. 
William C. Hill. 
Curtis J. Hillyer. 
W. S. HOGE. 
Robert O. Holtzman. 
Gardner G. Hubbard. 
Frank Hume. 
Stilson Hutchins. 
Maj. W. P. Huxford. 
James Kerr. 
T. A. Lambert. 
L. Z. Leiter. 
George E. Lemon. 
A. A. Lipscomb. 
Daniel Loughran. 
Samuel Maddox. 
Dr. Thomas F. Mallan. 
M. Marfan. 



A. P. Morse. 

D. I. Murphy. 
Clarence F. Norment. 
N. G. Ordway. 
George M. Oyster. 
Anthony Pollock. 
George R. Repetti. 

F. A. Richardson. 

E. Francis Riggs. 
Bushrod Robinson. 
Theo. Roessle. 
William H. Selden. 
H. W\ Sohon. 

James W. SomervillE. 
O. G. Staples. 
E. J. Stellwagen. 
John A. Swope. 
H. T. Taggart. 
A. A. Thomas. 
S. T. Thomas. 
Henry T. Thurber. 
Enoch Totten. 
H. O. TowLES. 
Thomas E. Waggam.\n. 
Charles E. White. 



Dr. William V. Marmion. C. C. Willard. 



C. M. Matthews. 
William F. Mattingly. 
F. B. McGuire. 

W. Cr.\nch McIntyre. 

D. P. McKeever. 
John R. McLean. 



H. A. Willard. 
W.\SH. B. Williams. 
Col. J. M. Wilson. 
Levi Woodbury. 
Simon Wolf, 
a. s. worthington. 



14 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

COMMITTEE ON PUBIJC ORDER AND COMFORT 

[To cooperate with the District authorities in securing the necessary aid for enforcing the requi- 
site regulations and to clear the avenue and streets for the formation and movement of the pro- 
cession. Also authorized to consult with the proper authorities in charge of the United States 
Capitol for the preservation of order in the Capitol grounds and such other matters as in their 
judgment may he necessary for the protection and comfort of the public, both during the cere- 
monies and evening entertainment.] 

Henry L,. Biscoe, Chainnan. 
\V. L. C.\SH. M. A. McGowAN. 

W. B. Easton. Col. W. G. MooRK. 

Gkorge H. Gaddes. Joseph Parris. 

John Keyworth. Thomas A. Rover. 

A. W. KEI.LEY. H. L. STREET. 

J. Fred. Kelly. Richard Sylvester. 

Noble D. Larner. L- P- Wright. 



EVENING ENTERTAINMENT COMMITTEE 

[Charged with all matters pertaining to the evening ceremonies except illumination of the Capi- 
tol and fireworks.] 

Jules Guthridge, Chainnan. 

A. T. Britton, V ice-Chairman. 

James F. ScaGGS, Secretary. 
Job Barnard. James Lansburgh. 

A. M. Bliss. W. A. McKenny. 

Robert Christie. Thomas F. Miller. 

Harrison Dingman. E. A. Moseley. 

George T. Dunlop. R. Ross Perry. 

Reginald Fendall. Richard Smith. 

H. W. Garnett. S. W. Tulloch. 

O. C. Green. Gen. Thomas M. Vincent. 

George E. Hamilton. L. C. Williamson. 

Louis D. Wine. 



RAILROAD RATES COMMITTEE 

[To obtain the lowest possible railroad rates from all points in the Union to this city, and announce 
the same to the public as fast as received.] 

Thomas W. Smith, Chairman. 
E. W. Anderson. Samuel Ross. 

H. L. Biscoe. W. J. Stephenson. 



COMMITTEE ON vSTANDS 

[In charge of the erection and decorating of a stand in front of the Capitol and such other stands 
as the Executive Committee shall order.] 

William J. P^'rizzell, Chairman. 
Harry Barton. T. L. Holbrook. 

Owen Donnelly. H. F. Holsten. 

William Holmead. C. C. Meads. 



Organization and Jl^ork 15 

CAPITOL DECORATION COMMITTEE 

[In charge of the decoration of the Capitol and the approaches thereto.] 

S. S. YoDKR, Chairman. 

R. B. BUCKI^KV. J. J. vS. Hassi.kr. 

John R. Carmody. James F. Hood. 

Thomas N. Conrad. Tracy L,. Jeffords. 

C. H. Pickling. James D. Maher. 

Benjamin F. Guy. George W. Moss. 

Charles H. Harris. W. H. Rupp. 

E. J. Hannan. George W. Talbert. 
J. H. C. Wilson. 

MUSIC COMINIITTEE 

[Charged with the duty of engaging the necessary music for the celebration, subject to the approval 

of the Executive Committee.] 

William A. Gordon, Chainnan. 

Dr. Frank T. Howe, Chainnan Siibcouunittcc on Chorus. 

Ralph L. Galt, Chairman SubcommiUcc on Band. 

A. B. COPPES. John A. Roeder. 

James H. Forsyth. W. A. Slack. 

Fred. A. Grant. Joseph I. Weller. 

J. E. Jones. James P. Willett. 

William H. Manogue. Leonard C. Wood. 

vS. M. Yeatman. 



PRINTING COMMITTEE 

[To super\'ise such printing as may be referred to them and ordered by the Executive Committee 
Also in charge of any designing and printing or publications that may be authorized by the 
Executive Committee.] 

A. F. Sperry, Chairman . 

Arthur St. C. Denver. David Moore. 

George H. Harries. William H. Rapley. 



BADGES AND SOUVENIR MEDALS COMMITTEE 

[To cause designs for badges and souvenir medals and the cost thereof to be submitted for the 
approval of the Executive Committee, and when so authorized to secure and deliver the same to 
the chairman of the Executive Committee.] 

Thomas Somerville, Chairman. 

George W. Casilear. H. H. Twomblv. 

D. I. Murphy. Joseph Waltmeyer. 

Sidney H. Nealey. George Gibson. 



i6 



Capitol Centennial Cele/^ration 



PRESS COMMITTEE 

[ToarraiiKe for the accommodation of the press and to extend all necessary facilities. 
Theodore W. NoyES, Chainnan. 
P. V. DE Graw, Vice-Chairman. 
Henry L. West, Secretary. 



George W. Abei.1.. 
Feux Agnus. 
Thomas G. AtvoRD. 
AivEX. D. Anderson 
Addison B. Atkins. 
Edward W. Barrett. 
David S. Barry. 
C. C. Bowseield. 
John Boyle. 
Hobart Brooks. 
Logan Carwsle. 
Chari^es C. Carlton. 
John M. Carson. 
Cluskey Cromwell. 
William L. Crounse. 
Marshall Cushing. 
R. H. Darby. 



E. G. DUNNELL. 
W. H. DENNIS. 
J. Hadley Doyle. 
Fergus p. Ferris. 
Harry P. Godwin. 
George H. Harries. 
Frank H. Hosford. 
Thomas B. Kalbfus. 
Rudolph Kauffmann. 
S. H. Kauffmann. 
Horace Kenney. 
R. M. Larner. 
Francis E. Leupp. 
A. Maurice Dowe. 
R. Bowman Matthews. 
John P. Miller. 
O'Brien Moore. 



Frank P. Morgan. 
Frank J. O'Neill. 
John H. Roche. 
Maurice Splain. 
John G. Slater. 
Harold Snowden. 
Orlando O. vStealey. 
Alfred j. Stofer. 
Louis Schade. 
R. H. Sylvester. 
John Tracey. 
Clifford Warden. 
Walter Wellman. 
E. B. Wight. 
R. J. Wynne. 



PARADE COMMITTEE 

[In charge of all matters pertaining to parade, both civic and military, organize the same, and at 
the proper time turn it over to the Grand Marshal.] 

Gen. Ellis SpE.^R, Chairman. 
Charles W. Darr, Vice-Chairman. 

Robert Ball. Daniel Frazier. 

Capt. Harrison Barbour. George Gibson. 

Robert Boyd. Col. C. Heywood, U. S. M. C. 

Lieut. Col. Harry Coggin. Capt. Joseph O. Manson. 

Capt. C. S. Domer. Capt. John S. Miller. 

S. E. Faunce. Capt. Allison Nailor. 
John J. Peabody. 



ILLUMINATION COMMITTEE 

[In charge of illnminating the Capitol and matters pertaining to illumination and fireworks.] 

Fred. a. Lehman, Chairman. 

William F. Hart, Vice-Chairman. 

A. W. Hart, Secretary. 

A. B. ClaxTON, Chairman Suhconunittcc on Fireworks. 

GusTAv Bissing. C. p. Gleim. 

Albert Bright. O. B. Hallam. 

Edward Clark. William McAdoo. 

Capt. George McC. Derby. B. N. Morris. 

Capt. G. J. FiEBEGER. George L. Morton. 

Max Georgii. A. S. PaTTison. 
A. R. Townsend. 



Organization and Work 



17 



FINANCE COMMITTEE 

[Charged with raising funds for the expenses of the celebration. When collected, to be paid over 
to the treasurer by the chairman.] 



John Joy Edson, Chairman. 
Frank P. Reeside, Secretary. 



Andrew Archer. 
John T. Arms. 
Brent. L. Bai,dwin. 
W. B. Bai^dwin. 
W. D. Baldwin. 
F. H. Barbarin. 
James L. Barbour. 
Job Barnard. 
Harry Barton. 
Chari^es J. Bei,L. 
H. H. Bergman. 
E. P. Berry. 
Samuel Bieber. 
J. Wesley Boteler. 
Charles C. Bradley. 
S. Thomas Brown. 
Horatio Browning. 
Henry C. Burch. 
Albert Carry. 
J. W. Chappell. 
Daniel B. Clark. 
William E. Clark. 
Dennis Connell. 
Clarence Corson. 
Samuel Cross. 
Samuel W. Curriden. 
C. H. Davidge. 
I/Ouis J. Davis. 
George W. Driver. 
Edward F. Droop. 
C. C. Duncanson. 
W. Clarence Duvall. 
S. G. Eberly. 
John C. Eckloff. 
Matthew G. Emery. 
George E. Emmons. 
A. P. Fardon. 
C. H. Fickling. 
Dr. George W. Fisher. 
James E. Fitch. 
Prof. W. G. Fowler. 
William J. Frizzell. 
Andrew Gleason. 
J. H. Gordon. 
Thomas Gray. 
A. M. Green. 

H. Mis. 211 



H. A. Griswold. 
Charles E. Gross. 
William B. Gurley. 
Jules Guthridge. 
George F. Harbin. 
Walter Heiston. 
George C. Henning. 
John E. Herrell. 

D. P. HiCKLING. 

Theo. L. Holbrook. 
A. H. F. HoLSTEN. 
R. O. HOLTZMAN. 

C. W. Howard. 
Charles A. James. 

A. S. Johnson. 
J. B. Johnson. 

J. Harrison Johnson. 
George a. Jordon. 
John G. Judd. 
Arthur L. Keane. 
George Killeen. 
George H. Kennedy. 
J. J. Kleiner. 
T. A. Lambert. 
James Lansburgh. 
John B. Larner. 
F. A. Lehman. 

B. F. Leighton. 
George E. Lemon. 

L. A. LiTTLEFIELD. 
PHILO J. LOCKWOOD. 

Meyer Loeb. 
A. M. LoThrop. 
John W. Macarty. 
Frank P. Madigan. 
John H. Magruder. 
William H. Manogue. 
Clarence McClelland, 
w. w. mccullough. 
A. M. McLachlen. 
Frank B. Mohun. 
W. C. Morrison. 
Allison Nailor, Jr. 
Frank P. Noyes. 
George M. Oyster. 
James F. Oyster. 
-2 



E. S. Parker. 
John C. Parker. 
Thomas C. Pearsall. 
Seaton Perry. 
Eugene Peters. 
J. T. Petty. 
W. W. Rapley. 
Frank T. Rawlings. 
E. Francis Riggs. 

T. E. ROESSLE. 

Samuel Ross. 

A. B. Ruff. 
Isadore Saks. 

Dr. A. J. vSchaFhirt. 
John W. Shafer. 
Samuel S. Shedd. 
John G. Slater. 
Thomas W. Smith. 

B. F. Snyder. 
Thomas Somerville. 
O. G. Staples. 

E. J. Stellwagen. 
Frederick C. vStevens. 

F. A. Stier. 

A. L. vSturtevant. 

J. S. vSwORMSTED. 

George W. Talbert. 
Joseph D. Taylor. 

A. A. Thomas. 
John W. Thompson. 
O. T. Thompson. 

W. vS. Thompson. 
Lem. Towers, Jr. 
R. A. Walker. 
vSamuel H. Walker. 

B. H. Warner. 
John L. We.wer. 
Edward S. Wescott. 
Frank P. Weller. 
W. J. Whelpley. 
Charles E. White. 
George H. B. White. 
Beriah Wilkins. 
Charles p. Williams. 
Jesse B. Wilson. 
Louis D. Wine. 



i8 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



AUDITING COMMITTEK 

[All bills must be examined by the committee, to ascertain if they have been properly authorized 
by the Executive Committee by order or by appropriation, and approved by the chairman of the 
Executive Committee. When so examined and approved bj' the chairman of the Committee 
on Auditing, the Treasurer shall draw his check for the amount of the bills, which shall then be 
paid. All statements or reports made up by the Executive Committee of receipts and disburse- 
ments must be verified and approved by the Committee on Auditing.] 



ISADORE Saks, Chairman. 



George C. Henning. 



CivEM. W. Howard. 



STREET DECORATION COMMITTEE 

Charged with the duty of securing decorations for and decorating the avenues and streets and the 
national and city government buildings.] 



Harrison 
Reuben F. Baker. 
Harrison Barbour. 
Robert Beali,. 
Henry L. Bryan. 
Albert Carry. 
s. w. curriden. 
WiivWAM Dickson. 
Edwin F. Droop. 
J. H. Gordon. 
Wm. Hoeke. 



Dingman, Chairman. 

I. W. Hopkins. 
Harry R. Howser. 
w. a. hutchins. 
George W. Joyce. 
Prof. Harry King. 
C. C. Lancaster. 
Frank P. Madigan. 
Edward Minnix. 
F. S. Parks. 
George F. Pyles. 



OFFICERS OF THE PARADE 

The following officers of the parade were appointed: 

Grand Marshal: Gen. Albert Ordway. 
Chief of Staff : Gen. Ellis Spear. 
Special Aids: Col. H. C. Corbin, U. S. A. 

Capt. George P. Schriver, U. S. A. 



Arthur D. Anderson. 

E. W. Anderson. 

T. H. Anderson. 

Joseph L. Atkins. 

Robert Ball. 

Ralph Barnard. 

J. A. Barthel. 

N. Bestor. 

E. H. Block. 

Lee Britton. 

Capt. William Brown. 

S. S. BURDETT. 

Maj. F. A. Butts. 



Aids 

Eugene B. Carusi. 
Thornton A. Carusi. 
Dorsey Claggett. 
Barnes Compton, Jr. 
John T. Crowley. 
A. J. Curtis. 
St. Julian Dapray. 
Charles W. Darr. 
Walter D. Davidge, Jr. 
William W. Deane. 
Gen. J. Dickinson. 
William Dickson. 
J. Franklin Donohue. 



J. Maury Dove. 
J. Hadley Doyle. 
Lanier Dunn. 
John Joy Edson, Jr. 
Maj. Thomas M. Gale. 
Arthur P. Gorman, Jr. 
Dr. W. Hammett. 
Maj. William Harmer. 
Robert Harrover. 
F. J. Hart. 
Richard K. Harvey. 
William B. Hibbs. 
S. Hodgkins. 



Organization and Work 



19 



ROBKRT O. HotTZMAN. 

Frank Humk, Jr. 

Maj. T. W. HUNGKRFORD. 

Maj. Robert W. Hunter. 
Capt. J. H. Johnson. 
Prof. J. Harrv King. 
Thomas J. King. 
S. Prentiss Knutt. 
BIvAir Lee. 

L. A. LiTTLEFIELD. 

Woodbury Lowerv, Jr. 
Dr. J. Maloney. 
WiLijAM H. Manoguk. 
Col. T. R. Marshai,i,. 



James J. McDonaed. 
George X. McLanahan. 
W. H. Michael. 
Maj. Julian G. Moore. 
Maj. A. Porter Morse. 
H. C. Moses. 
Washington Nailor. 
Edward G. Niles. 
James L. Norris, Jr. 
Gen. J. N. Patterson. 
George H. Penrose. 
H. L. Prince. 
George W. Rae. 
J. B. Randolph. 



John J. Repetti. 
IvEiGH Robinson. 
I. N. Runyan. 
Col. J. H. vStrickland. 
Magnus S. Thompson. 
Julius W. Tolson. 
Maj. E. B. Townsend. 
John TvveedalE. 
h. h. twombly. 
Hugh Waddell. 
Albert c. Walker. 
Joseph I. Weller. 
Dr. William P. Young. 
W. H. Zimmerman. 



SCOPE OF THE CELEBRATION 

The plans for the celebration were all prepared by the Citizens' 
Committee, and, upon approval by the Joint Committee appointed 
under the joint resolution of Congress, were carried into execution 
by the Citizens' Committee. 

From the very beginning the Citizens' Committee recognized 
that the event to be celebrated was of great national importance, 
and, as soon as the Congress assembled in extra session, submitted 
the matter to the Vice-President of the United States and to the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Congress immedi- 
ately acted, and passed a joint resolution (see p. 102) providing for 
a committee of fourteen, to consist of seven Senators and seven 
Representatives, to act with a similar number of citizens to be 
selected by the Citizens' Committee, "to take order in the matter 
of arranging for the ceremonies at the Capitol." 



THE JOINT COMMITTEE 
The Joint Committee was composed and officered as follows: 

Chairman: Hon. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees, United States Senate. 
Secretary: Gen. Duncan S. Walker. 

Senators 

Daniel W. Voorhees. John Sherman. 

Matt W. Ransom. Stephen M. White. 

William E. Chandler. Watson C. Squire. 

John Martin. 



20 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



WlL,I,IAM D. BYNUM. 

David B. Henderson. 
George W. Houk. 



Representatives 

John C. Black. 
John De Witt Warner. 
Charles CNeill. 
William Cogswell. 



Citizens 



Lawrence Gardner. 

Gen. Duncan S. Walker. 

C. C. Glover. 

John W. Ross. 

B. H. Warner. 

J. M. Toner. 

Beriah Wilkins. 



Michael I. Weller. 

E. B. Hay. 

S. W. Woodward. 

H. L. BiscoE. 

A. R. Spofford. 

John Joy Edson. 

Marshall W. Wines. 



At meetings of the Joint Committee the plans for the celebration 
drawn up by the Citizens' Committee were approved and directed 
to be carried into effect (see pp. 92-95). 



LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS 

It was also agreed by the Joint Committee that Congress should 
be requested to make the i8th day of September, 1893, a legal 
holiday within the District of Columbia, and to lend certain army 
and navy flags to the Architect of the Capitol for decorative pur- 
poses, and that the Senate and the House of Representatives be 
invited to attend the exercises at the Capitol. Congress responded 
favorably to the requests and accepted the invitation (see pp. 
95, 103-106). 





o 



The Programme 



Official Prog-ramme 



The following is the official prograiume for the celebration agreed 
upon and executed: 

CONCERTvS BY CENTENNIAL CHIMES 

From g to lo a. in. 

1. National peal, changes rung on thirteen bells. 

2. America (M}' Country, 'Tis of Thee). 

3. Ring Out, Wild Bells. (Mrs. Abhy Hutchinson Patton. ) 

4. Old Coronation. 

5. The Sweet By and By. 

6. Bhie Bells of vScotland. 

7. The British Grenadiers. 

8. The Bells of Shandon. 

9. Maryland, My Marj-land. 

10. De Beriot's Fifth Air. 

1 1 . Way Down upon the Suwannee River. 

12. Schubert's Ave Maria. 

13. Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. 

14. Oft in the Stilly Night. 

15. Dixie. 

16. Old Black Joe. 

17. Haste to the Wedding. 

iS. Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground. 

19. Bonny Doon. 

20. What Fair3--like Music. 

21. National salute, the thirteen bells being struck in unison forty-four times. 

Fi'oui I to 2 p. 1)1. 

1. Centennial peal, changes rung on thirteen bells. 

2. My Country, 'Tis of Thee (America). 

3. The Bells, march. (Battmann.) 

4. Robin Adair. (Keppel.) 

5. La Marseillaise. (Rouget de ri;Je. ) 

6. Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms. (Tom Moore.) 

7. Chimes of Corneville. (Planquette. ) 

8. Rose Marie. 

9. Wo i.st des Deutchen Vaterland ? ( Reichardt. ) 
10. Way Down upon the Suwannee River. (Foster.) 

f (ff) Monastery Bells. 
\ {b) Ave Maria Stella. ( Vely. ) 
12. De Beriot's Fifth Air. 



24 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

13. Die Kapelle (The Chapel). (Kreiitzer. ) 

14. Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. ( Flotow. ) 

( {a) Prayer from Zainpa. (Herold.) 

I (<5) Wedding March — Lohengrin. (Wagner.) 

16. Ring Out, Wild Bells. (Mrs. Abby Hutchinson Patton. ) 

17. Heimaths-Klange. (Silcher. ) 

18. Oft in the Stilly Night. (Moore. ) 

19. Hear the Music of the Bells. 

20. The Sweet By and By. 

21. Le Carillon. (Streabog. ) 

22. Maryland, My Maryland. 

23. National salute, change peal, the thirteen bells being struck in unison 

forty-four times. 



ROUTE OF PARADE 

The parade to start at i p. m. and to arrive at the Capitol before 
2 p. m., the line of march (same as on September 18, 1793) to begin 
on Pennsylvania avenue near Fifteenth street northwest; thence 
sonth down Fifteenth street to Pennsylvania avenue; thence down 
Pennsylvania avenue to the Capitol grounds; thence to B street 
north; by B street north to First street east, to B street south; 
thence to New Jersey avenue, there to be dismissed, 

EXERCISES AT THE CAPITOL 

The following was decided on as the programme at the Capitol, 
commencing at 2 p. m. : 

Music — Overture to Tannhauser Marine Band 

Prayer Right Reverend WILI.IAM Paret, Bishop of Maryland 

Music — Te Deuni in E flat. ( Dudley Buck ) Grand Chorus 

Introduction Lawrence Gardner, Chairman of General Committee 

Chairman of Ceremonies Grover Cleveland, President of the United States 

Music — Selections — Lakme Marine Band 

Orator of the Day William Wirt Henry, Virginia 

Music — Star-Spangled Banner Grand Chorus 

Address — The United States Senate Adlai E. Stevenson, Vice-President 

Music — Potpourri of national airs Marine Band 

Address— The LTnited States House of Representatives. . .Charles F. Crisp, Speaker 

Music — The Heavens are Telling ( Creation ) Grand Chorus 

Address — The Judiciary. . .Henry Billincs Brown, Supreme Court United States 

Music — Centennial March. ( Fanciulli ) Marine Band 

Address — The District of Columbia. 

Myron M. Parker, Commissioner District of Columbia 
Music — America Marine Band, Grand Chorus, and audience 

The vocal music to be sung by a chorus of fifteen hundred voices, 
under the direction of Profes.sor N. Du Shane Cloward. 



Official Programme 25 



EVENING CONCERT 

The Centennial Chimes, from 6 to 7 p. m. , to render the numbers 
following': 

1. Change peal on national airs. 

2. Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys. 

3. Auld Lang Syne. 

4. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. ( Foster. ) 

5. Prayer from Der Freischutz. (Von Weber.) 

6. Oh, Summer Night — Don Pasquale. 

7. Ave Maria. (Schubert.) 

8. Camptown Races. ( Christy. ) 

9. Bonny Blue Flag. 

10. Home Again. 

11. Robin Adair. 

12. De Beriot's Fifth Air. 

13. Those Evening Bells. (Tom Moore.) 

14. Home, Sweet Home. (Payne.) 

15. Old Folks at Home. (Foster. ) 

16. Nearer, My God, to Thee— Bethany. 

17. The Last Rose of Summer. (Moore.) 

18. Wedding March — Lohengrin. (Wagner.) 

19. Oft in the Stilly Night. (Moore. ) 

20. Star-Spangled Banner. ( Key. ) 

21. National peal, change salute, all the bells being struck in unison forty-four 

times. 

At the east front of the Capitol, commencing at 8 p. m., the 
following programme: 

1. Grand march — National Capitol Centennial. (Fanciulli) Marine Band 

2. Chorus — The Heavens are Telling (Creation) Grand Centennial Chorus 

3. Overture — Semiramide. (Rossini) Marine Band 

4. Home, Sweet Home. (Payne) Centennial Chorus 

5. Monastery Bells. ( Vely ) Marine Band 

6. Coronation Centennial Chorus 

7. Trip to Manhattan Beach. (Fanciulli) Marine Band 

8. Hail Columbia. ( Fyles ) Centennial Chorus 

9. In the Clock Store. ( Orth ) Marine Band 

10. Recitation — The Star-Spangled Banner. (Key) Mr. Chari,es B. Hanford 

11. Chorus — Star-Spangled Banner. . .Centennial Chorus, Marine Band, and audience 

12. Voyage Comique — A Trip to Mars. (Fanciulli) Marine Band 

The chimes of thirteen large bells, from the McShane Foundry, 
Baltimore, were stationed on the top of the wall at the northwest 
corner of the new Congressional Library building, and were oper- 
ated by Professor John R. Gibson, of the Metropolitan Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Washington, and Professor Paul Stopfer, 



26 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



of St. Alphonso Church, Baltimore. The first concert by the 
chimes began according to programme, at 9 a. m., and continued 
until nearly no' clock. At i p. m. the second concert began, and the 

evening concert began at 6 o'clock, 
ending with the "Star-Spangled 
Banner" and the "National Peal," 
a change salute, all the thirteen 
bells being rung in unison forty- 
four times. 

The vocal music rendered during 
the afternoon and in the evening at 
the Capitol was by the Grand Cen- 
tennial Chorus, of fifteen hundred 
adult voices, conducted by Professor 
N. Du Shane Cloward. Several 
weeks preceding the event Professor 
Cloward had divided the District 
into subdivisions and trained the 
subdivisions separately, having one 
grand rehearsal of fifteen hundred 
voices at Convention Hall on the 
evening of September 13, 1893. 

The United States Marine Band, 
Professor Fanciulli conductor, ren- 
dered the instrumental music, both 
at the afternoon exercises and at the 
evening concert at the Capitol, and accompanied the Centennial 
Chorus on those occasions. 




y^A^^i_^ 



DECORATIONS AND ILLUMINATION 



The principal decorations at the Capitol were upon the central 
portion of the east front. The grand stands, extending from the 
north to the south wing, or over the whole east front of the main 
building and old wings, were draped with bunting, extending 
back to the cornice, while the front of the stands was hung with 



Official Programme 27 

American flags, gracefully caught up at regular intervals with red, 
white, and blue rosettes. A white anchor on a background of blue 
covered the center of the main stand, from which the orations 
were delivered. High upon the center of the main building were 
hung two large garrison flags, from which was suspended the 
national coat of arms. Higher up still, on the top of the great 
white dome, four large American flags floated from horizontal 
staffs, pointing north, south, east, and west. 

With the double purpose of illuminating the east front of the 
Capitol and furnishing light for the evening concert, at each 
corner of the central stand was placed a spray of twenty-four col- 
ored globes. Between the columns of the main portico were arches 
of lighted jets, and bands of jets incased in globes encircled the mas- 
sive pillars. To the right of the grand central stairway, in near 
proximity to the corner stone of the Capitol, was a large gilded 
framework, illuminated by jets in globes, reading "1793 — Wash- 
ington," while to the left of the central stairway a similar illu- 
mination read, "1893 — Cleveland." 

GRAND STANDS 

There were three grand stands erected at the east front of the 
Capitol. The central one, for the President, the orators of the day, 
the Cabinet and other executive officers, the Judiciary, the Diplo- 
matic Corps, and other distinguished guests, covered the whole 
space of the center of the main building and adjoined the rotunda, 
from which was the main entrance for the guests, the orators 
entering from the southeast front of the platform. The capacity 
of this stand exceeded twenty-five hundred. To the north of this 
stand and adjoining it was the stand for the Senate and House, 
under the control of the Sergeants-at-Arms of those bodies, with 
a seating capacity of fifteen hundred. To the south of the main 
stand and adjoining it was the grand stand for the Centennial 
Chorus, with a seating capacity of sixteen hundred, and facing 
it were the accommodations for the Marine Band. All of these 
stands were tastefully decorated, as before described. 



28 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

STREET DECORATIONS 

The decorations on the private buildings on Pennsylvania ave- 
nue, from the Capitol to the White House, were profuse and 
beautiful. From ever}- window on each side of the street large 
flags and strips of bunting were streaming, while many buildings 
were topped with flagstaffs from which floated the national colors. 
Other streets in the city also were dressed in holiday attire, all the 
enterprise of patriotic private citizens. 

CENTENNIAL MEDAL 

A handsome medal was struck to commemorate the event. It 
was designed by Mr. George W. Casilear, and struck on silver, 
bronze, and white metal gilded. On one side is shown the east 
front of the Capitol of the United States as of the date September 
i8, 1893. Above is the legend "Centennial ceremonies" and 
below "At the United States Capital," the whole circled with 
forty-four stars, with the date "Sept. 18, 1893." On the obverse 
is a facsimile of the scene on the bronze door of the Senate wing 
of the Capitol, with a medallion head of Washington, above 
which are fifteen stars, the whole circled with the legend 
"Laying the corner stone of the Capitol, September 18, 1793." 
The medal is suspended by a red, white, and blue silk ribbon, 
upon a white silk ribbon, from a bar formed in the fashion of the 
fasces, with bands upon which are the legend ' ' E pluribus unum. ' ' 
A facsimile of the medal will be found facing this page. 

SOUVENIR INVITATIONS 

Handsome invitations, two thousand in number, containing the 
programme of the exercises at the Capitol, were prepared under 
the direction of the Invitation Committee and issued to distin- 
guished, guests. Upon the first exterior page was a beautiful 
engraving, sketching the Capitol as it appeared in 1893 from the 
northeast, and the Capitol as of 185 1, viewed from the west, 
the two joined by an exact reproduction of Crawford's bronze 



Official Programme 29 

representation of the laying of the corner stone in 1793. The 
last exterior page was embellished with an engraving of the 
marble clock over the north door of the old Hall of the House of 
Representatives, now known as Statuary Hall. 



THE TABLET 

After defraying all the expenses incurred on account of the cele- 
bration, the Citizens' Committee had a surplus on hand, part of 
which was appropriated for the preparation of the account of 
the proceedings and of procuring suitable photographs of the 
Capitol to illustrate the book ordered by the Congress to be pub- 
lished. In addition, the sum of $900 was appropriated to secure 
designs for and the casting of a tablet of bronze to mark the 
corner stone of the original Capitol building. The contract for 
this tablet was given to Maurice Powers, of New York, whose 
design was accepted by the committee, and, under the joint reso- 
lution of Congress, approved April 8, 1894 (see pages 108-110), 
the same has been placed upon the southeast wall of the north 
wing of the original building, just above the corner stone laid 
by George Washington September 18, 1793. A facsimile of 
the bronze tablet will be seen facing page 109. 

The estimated cost of the tablet was $1,100, but the contractor 
abated the sum to $900. 

COST OF THE CELEBRATION 

The entire expense of the celebration, as has been before said, 
was defrayed by the Citizens' Committee, The total amount 
contributed by voluntary subscriptions was $5,300.50; receipts 
from the concert at Convention Hall given by the Centennial 
Chorus, $233.30; receipts from sale of old material, $34; sales of 
Centennial medals to members of committee, $457.75; a total of 
$6,025.55. ^^^^ amount of disbursements for the celebration up 
to the final meeting of the Citizens' Committee, April 19, 1894, 
was $4,797.60; leaving a cash balance on hand at that date of 
$1,227.95. Of this amount the sum of $100 was appropriated to 



30 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



reimburse the Veteran Firemen's Association for expenditures 
made by them in entertaining guests from abroad; #150 for pre- 
paring the book and photographs, as before stated; $900 for the 
tablet, and the remainder for the expenses incident to the prepa- 
ration of the memorial. 




The Parade 



31 



The Parade 



On the morniiig of September i8, 1893, at 9 o'clock, the cele- 
bration began with the concert by the Centennial Chimes, the 
programme of which has been heretofore given, closing a little 
after 10 o'clock. At i o'clock 
the afternoon programme for the ^^S^-^ 

bells began, lasting until nearly 
2 o'clock, and 



being completed 
just as President 
Cleveland de- 
scended from his 
carriage to 
take his seat 








npon the grand 
stand. 

Long before 
the hour an- 



^^**^1^i^^^ n o im c e d for 






the parade the 
^ route was lined 

with spectators, and it 
is estimated that over 
one hundred and fifty 
thousand people saw the 
pageant pass in review, 
while in the Capitol Grounds and the adjacent streets there were 
assembled not less than one hundred thousand citizens. 

The following order of Chief Marshal Ordway for the forma- 
tion and movement of the procession was adhered to with few 
departures : 

I. The chief marshal and staff will assemble on Executive aveniie, west of the 
Treasury Department, at 12.30 o'clock p. m. 

H. Mis. 211 3 33 



34 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

2. The cavalrv escort of the President of the United States will assemble at 12.45 
o'clock p. ni. in inverted order, facin.t( sonth, on the north side of Pennsylvania 
avenne, left resting on Jackson place. Carriages of orator, Chairman of General 
Committee, and guests on south side of Pennsylvania avenue, between west gate of 
the Executive Mansion and the War Department. 

3. The first division will assemble at 12 o'clock m., as follows: Alexandria Wash- 
ington Lodge of Masons, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows on their left, 
on Jackson place, right resting on Pennsylvania avenue; the remainder of the divi- 
sion, in the order hereinafter named, on the south side of Pennsylvania avenue, with 
the Association of Oldest Inhabitants on the right, resting opposite east corner of the 
War Department. 

4. The second division will assemble at 12.15 o'clock p. m. on Seventeenth street, 
south of Pennsylvania avenue, in the order hereinafter stated, right resting on Penn- 
sylvania avenue, with its left resting on New York avenue. 

5. The third division will assemble at 12.30 o'clock p. m., as follows: The United 
States artillery and the United States Marine Corps on the north roadway of the 
White Lot, right resting on Seventeenth street; the District National Guard on 
the west and south roadway of the White Lot, right resting at junction of north 
roadway. 

6. The fourth division will assemble at 12.45 o'clock p. ni., as follows: Veteran and 
visiting firemen on Lafayette place, right resting on Pennsylvania avenue; the Dis- 
trict Fire Department on Fifteenth street, north of Pennsylvania avenue, right 
resting on New York avenue. 

7. All organizations will assemble and stand in column, and will move in the order 
above stated. In proceeding to the place of assembly no organization except mili- 
tary will be permitted to march on Pennsylvania avenue between First and Fifteenth 
streets after 12 o'clock noon. 

8. The procession will move precisely at i o'clock p. m. Any organization not in 
column and ready to move at that time will be excluded. 

9. Carriages will march in column of twos. Civic organizations will march in 
column of fours, with a distance of forty-four inches between each set of fours and 
a distance of ten yards between organizations. Military organizations will march in 
cohmm of companies or platoons, according to their strength. The distance between 
divisions will be forty yards. 

10. The line of march will be as follows: Fifteenth street; Pennsylvania avenue 
to First street; through Capitol Grounds, north of the Capitol, to B street north- 
B street north to First street east; First street east to B street south; B street south 
to New Jersey avenue. Organizations will be dismissed from the procession on 
reaching the corner of B street south and New Jersey avenue. Music will not 
be permitted to play on Capitol Hill after 2 o'clock p. m. 

11. The organization and order of the procession will be as follows: 

Chief Marshal and stafif. 

Squadron of United States cavalry. 

President of the United States. 

Orator of the day. 

Governors of States. 

Chairman of General Committee; distinguished guests. 

Troop A, District National Guard. 

FIRST DIVISION 

Rai,ph L. Gai.T, Marshal. 

Alexandria Washington Lodge of Ma.sons. 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Association of the Oldest Inhabitants. 



The Parade 35 

Order of Elks. 

Knights of Pythias. 

Order of United American Mechanics. 

Order of Red Men. 

Knights of St. Peter. 

Independent Order of Rechabites of North America. 

Journeymen Stonecutters' Association of the District of Columbia. 

Capital City Guards. 

Butler Infantry Corps. 



SECOND DIVISION 
Wii<i.iAM P. Young, Marshal. 

National Rifles. 
Society of the Cincinnati. 
Sons of the American Revolution. 
Sons of the Revolution. 
Society of Colonial Wars. 
Aztec Club of 1S47. 
Veterans of the Mexican War. 
Old Guard 
Grand Army of the Republic. 
Sons of Veterans. 

THIRD DIVISION 
General H. G. Gibson, U. S. A., Marshal. 

Battalion of Fourth United States Artillery. 

Light Battery C, Third United States Artillery. 

Battalion of United States Marine Corps. 

National Giiard of the District of Columbia. 

Company F, Third Regiment Virginia Volunteers. 

FOURTH DIVISION 
Mr. James H. Richards, Marshal. 

Veteran Firemen of the District of Columbia. 

Veteran Firemen of Brookljm, N. Y. 

Hydraulion Fire Company of Alexandria, Va. 

Relief Hook and Ladder Company of Alexandria, Va. 

Fire Department of P'rederick, Md. 
Fire Department of the District of Columbia. 

By order of Chief Marshal Ai^berT Ordway: 

Ellis Spear, Chief of Staff. 




T 12.45 o'clock ]Mr. Lawrence 
Gardner, Chairman of the Gen- 
eral Committee, and Air. Beriah 
WiLKiNS, Chairman of tlie Recep- 
tion Committee, reported to Presi- 
dent Cleveland that the parade was 
formed, and, escorted by Mr. Wilkins, 
the President entered the carriage assigned 
to him and rapidh' drove to his place in 
the column. 
General Albert Ordway, the Grand 
Marshal, then rode to the front of the column, and the parade 
marched down Fifteenth street to Pennsylvania avenue, thence to 
the Capitol, over the designated route, in the following order: 

General A1.BERT Ordway, Chief Marshal ; General EivUS SpEar, Chief of Staff, 
and the aids heretofore named. 

United States cavalry. Colonel GuY V. Henry commanding : 
Troop A, First United States Cavalry, Captain Bom as. 
Troop H, Eighth United States Cavalry, Lieutenant STEELE. 
Troop F, Seventh United States Cavalry, Captain BELL. 
Troop K, Ninth United States Cavalry, Captain HuGHE-S. 

Colonel H. C. Corbin, U. S. A., and Captain George C. SchrivER, U. S. A., 
special aids. 

The President of the United States, Chairman of Ceremonies, in carriage with Mr. 
Beriah Wilkins, Chairman of Conmiittee on Reception. 

William Wirt Henry, orator of the day, escorted by Mr. Lawrence Gard- 
ner, Chairman of the General Committee. 

The Secretary of vState, escorted by Dr. J. M. Toner and Mr. William B. Webb. 

The Secretary of the Treasury, escorted by Mr. J. W. Babson and Mr. Matthew 
G. Emery. 

The Attorney-General, escorted by General S. S. Henkle and Mr. Henry Wise 
Garnett. 

The Postmaster-General, escorted by Mr. Charles C. Glover and Dr. William 
TiNDALL. 

The vSecretary of Agriculture, escorted by Mr. Simon Wolf and Mr. H. W. Sohon. 

The Right Reverend William Paret, Bishop of Maryland, escorted by Mr. 
A. R. Spofford and Mr. E. B. Hay. 

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, escorted by Messrs. Enoch 
ToTTEN, Chapin Brown, William F. Mattingly, and A. S. Worthington. 

The Joint Committee of Congress, escorted by Messrs. B. H. W'arner, IsadorE 
36 



TJic Parade 37 



Saks, MARSHAL!. \V. Wines, Harrison Dingman, and L. C. Williamson. 

The Coniniissioners of the District of Columbia, escorted by Mr. M. I. WellER. 

The Court of Appeals, District of Columbia. 

The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. 

The Governor of Maryland and the Governor of Rhode Island, escorted by Mr. 
F. A. Lehman and Mr. A. F. Sperry. 

Troop A, District National Guard. 

FIRST DIVISION. 
Ralph L. Galt, Marshal, and aids. 

Association of the Oldest Inhabitants, E. R. McKean, Marshal. 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Dr. T. J. Jones, Marshal: 

Grand Encampment. 

Subordinate Encampment. 

Grand Lodge. 

Subordinate Lodge. 

Grand Canton, No. i, of Baltimore, Md. 

Monumental Canton, of Baltimore, Md. 

Zimmerman Canton, of Baltimore, Md. 
Uniform Rank Knights of Pythias, Colonel H. C. CoGGiN commanding. 
Benevolent Order of Elks, Samuel King, Marshal: 

Washington Lodge, No. 15. 

Baltimore Lodge, No. 7. 
Order of Red Men, John C. Dunning, Marshal. 

United Order of American Mechanics, John D. Schofield, Marshal. 
Junior Order of American Mechanics, W. W. BoswELL, Marshal. 
Sons of Jonadab. 
Independent Order of Rechabites: 

Senior Order, J. Adams, Marshal. 

Junior Order, John R. Mahony, Marshal. 
Capital City Guards. 
Butler Cadets. 

SECOND DIVISION 
William P. Young, Marshal, and aids. 

National Rifles, Captain James F. Oyster commanding. 

Officers of the General Society and officers of the State and District societies of 
the Sons of the American Revolution, in carriages. They were: General Horace 
Porter, of New York, President-General; General J. C. Breckinridge, U. S. A., 
Vice-President-General; Hon. Franklin Murphy, of New York, Secretary -Gen- 
eral; Mr. C. W. Haskins, of New York, Treasurer-General; Mr. A. Howard 
Clarke, of Washington, D. C, Registrar-General; Rev. Dr. Randolph McKim, 
of Washington, D. C, chaplain; Mr. E. M. Gallaudet, of Washington, D. C, 
President of the District of Columbia society; Judge John Goode, of Virginia; 
Hon. Henry M. Shepard, President of the society in Illinois ; Hon. E. C. 
Cabell, President of the .society in Missouri ; Mr. Alexander Hamilton, of 
New York. 

Society of the Cincinnati, in carriages, by the following committee: Hon. Asa 
Bird Gardiner, LL.D., Secretary-General; Hon. Clifford Stanley, of New 
Jersey; Colonel GEORGE B. Sanford, U. S. A.; Mr. John Cropper, New York; 
Hon. William Wayne, Pennsvlvania; Hon. William B. Webb, LL.D., Maryland; 



38 Capitol Centennial Celrbi-ation 

General George DoherTy Johnson, South Carolina; Hon. Wiluam D. Har- 
den, Georgia; Mr. Osceola C. Green, Maryland; Mr. Henry Randaei. Webb, 
Maryland, and Mr. WiEEiAM MacPhERSON Hornor, Pennsylvania. 

Sons of the Revolution. 

Society of Colonial Wars. 

Sons of the American Revolution, Hon. John W. Dougeass, Marshal. 

The Old Guard. 

The Grand Armv of the Republic, Junior Vice-Commander B. T. Janney com- 
manding. 

John A. Rawlins Post, No. i, vS. W. Tueey commanding. 

Kit Carson Post, No. 2, A. HarT commanding. 

George G. Meade Post, No. 5, E. C. GrumeEy connnanding. 

Lincoln Post, No. 3, Daniee Wieeiams commanding. 

John F. Reynolds Post, No. 6, W. N. Thomas commanding. 

J. A. Garfield Post, No. 7, T. R. Senior commanding. 

O. P. Morton Post, No. 7, WaeTER MiddeETOn commanding. 

Farragut Post, No. 10, A. B. HureburT commanding. 

Charles P. Stone Post, No. 11, W. H. HoovER conmianding. 

George W. Morris Post, No. 19, SamuEE McGonnigeE commanding. 

Sheridan Post, No. 14, H. E. Burton commanding. 

George H. Somers Post, No. 15, B. FuELER commanding. 

George H. Thomas Post, No. 13, A. B. FrisbiE commanding. 

Henry Wilson Post, No. 17, W. S. DEERE commanding. 

Sons of Veterans, ChareES Conrad commanding: 
John A. Logan Post, No. 2. 

THIRD DIVISION 

General H. G. Gibson, U. S. A., Marshal, and aids. 

Fourth Artillery Band. 

Companies M, I, and A, Fourth United States Artillery, Captain Fuger, U. S. A., 
commanding battalion. 

Marine Band, Professor FanciueEI, Director. 

Marine Corps, four companies. Lieutenant H. K. White connnanding battalion. 
District National Guard, Colonel Cecie Clay commanding, and staff: 
Schroeder's National Guard Band. 
Engineer Corps, Lieutenant F. S. AvERiEE. 
First Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Wieeiam G. Moore commanding and 

staff. 
First Battalion (Light Infantry), Major Burton R. Ross, commanding: 
Company A, Captain C. M. LoEFFEER. 
Company B, Captain C. M. ShrEve. 
Company C, Captain C. H. Ourand. 
Company D, Captain John S. MieeER. 
Second Battalion, Major R. A. O'Brien commanding: 

Company A, Corcoran Cadets, Captain E. C. Edwards. 
Company B, Morton Cadets, Captain L. H. ReicheefEEDER. 
Company C, National Fencibles, Captain C. vS. DoMER. 
Company D, High School Cadets, Captain R. H. Young. 
War Department Guards, Captain F. T. Wieson. 
Second Regiment of Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel M. Emmett Ureee com- 
manding and staff. 



The Parade 

Fourth Battalion, Major E. R. Campbeli, commanding: 

Company A, Emmet Guards, Captain Harry Walsh. 

Company B, Columbian Guards, Lieutenant J. F. Keli^v. 

Company D, Ordway Rifles, Captain J. M. Wir.r.rAMS. 
Fifth Battalion, Major Otto L. Suess commanding: 

Company A, Captain W. J. Simmons. 

Company B, Captain Fabian Columbus. 

Company C, Lieutenant SwigarT. 

Company C, Lieutenant G. W. Engi^and. 
Sixth Battalion, Captain J. A. Salmon commanding: 

Company A, Captain John W. Parsons. 

Company B, Captain J. vS. Tomunson. 

Company C, Captain E. D. SmooT. 

Company D, Lieutenant H. L. B. ACKERSON. 
Battery A, Captain H. G. FoRSBERG commanding. 
Ambulance Corps, Lieutenants J. A. Watson and D. S. Verdi. 
Bicycle Corps, Captain C. B. Story. 

FOURTH DIVISION 



39 



Colonel James H. Richards, Marshal. 
Laurel Military Band. 

Washington Veteran Firemen, with engine and hose wagon, John Thompson. 
Foreman. 

Freeport Cornet Band. 

Brooklyn Veteran Firemen, J. H. Berger, Marshal. 

Alexandria Hydraulion and Relief Company, with engine, hose carriage, and 
fuel wagon. Sergeant Crouse commanding. 

Alexandria Hook and Ladder Company, R. M. Latham, Foreman. 
District Fire Department, Chief Parris and Assistant Chief BELT. 
Engines and hose carriages: 
No. I. 
No. 2. 
No. 4. 
No. 6. 
No. 7. 
Truck A. 

Fuel and supply wagons. 
Battalion Mounted Police. 




At the Capitol 



41 



At the Capitol 



Long before the appointed hour for the commencement of the 
exercises at the Capitol, the invited guests, who were received at 
the east door of the Rotunda by General Duncan S. Walker, 
Chairman of the Committee on Invitations, and his assistants, 
began to arrive and were shown to their seats upon the grand 

Besides the President and the orators of 
day, the Cabinet, the Justices of the Su- 
preme Court, Chiefs of Bureaus in the 
Executive Departments, distinguished 
officers of the Army and 
Navy, members 



stand 




of the Diplomatic Corps, and other eminent persons, numbering 
two thousand, had been invited, and the stand was filled to 
its utmost capacity. 

At a few minutes before 2 o'clock, the Senate, in a body, pre- 
ceded by its President, Sergeant-at-Arms, Secretary, and Door- 
keeper, passed through the Rotunda and entered the stand to 

the north, provided for the Congress. 

43 



44 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

Almost immediately afterwards the House of Representatives, 
preceded by its vSpeaker, Clerk, vSergeant-at-Arms, and Door- 
keeper, passed through the east door of the Rotunda and took 
the seats assigned them on the north stand. 

In a few minutes the Joint Committee of Congress appeared 
upon the grand stand, and as the head of the column arrived, 
President Cleveland, who was to act as the Chairman of Cere- 
monies, the Right Reverend the Bishop of Maryland, and the 
orators of the day, escorted by members of the Citizens' Com- 
mittee, alighted from their carriages and took seats in the front 
of the central stand, welcomed by a great shout arising from one 
hundred thousand throats. 

Already Professor Cloward had occupied the south stand with 
his fifteen hundred choristers. The Marine Band, Professor Fan- 
CiULLi, had been unavoidably detained for a few moments, due 
to the fact that they marched in the parade at the head of the 
Marine Corps. In the meantime the chimes at the Congressional 
Library building, directly in front of the grounds, rang out a 
merry peal, while the crowd cheered again and again. 

THE INVOCATION 

The Chairman of the Citizens' Committee arose, and by his 
gestures commanded silence. The assemblage obeyed, and at 2.07 
p. m. the Right Reverend William Paret, Bishop of Mary- 
land, vested in his episcopal robes, advanced to the front of 
the platform and made the invocation, as follows: 

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, 
and further us with Thy continual help; that in all our works begun, 
continued, and ended in Thee we may glorify Thy holy Name, and 
finally, by Thy mercy, obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us 
this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive 
those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil: For Thine i.s the kingdom and the power and the 
glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 



Af the Capitol 45 

Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite, have 
mercy upon this whole land; and so rule the hearts of Thy servants, the 
President of the United States and all others in authority, that the}', 
knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek Thine 
honor and glory; and that we and all the people, duly considering whose 
authority they bear, may faithfully and obediently honor them, in Thee, 
and for Thee, according to Th)' blessed Word and ordinance; through 
Jesus Christ our L,ord, who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and 
reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 

Most gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for the people of 
these United States in general, so especially for their Senate and 
Representatives in Congress assembled, that Thou wouldst be pleased 
to direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advancement of 
Thy glory, the good of Thy church, the safety, honor, and welfare 
of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their 
endeavors, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happi- 
ness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among 
us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for 
us, and Thy whole church, we humbly beg in the name and mediation 
of Jesus Christ our most blessed lyord and Savior. Amen. 

Almightj^ Father, from whose goodness it comes that this house has 
been and is the center of a powerful and happy nation, most heartily we 
thank Thee for all Thy loving providences to these United States: And 
this day especially, that Thou hast so guided the wisdom and overruled 
all the errors and prejudices of our great national counsels and decisions 
for these one hundred years. Accept our thankfulness, we beseech 
Thee, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

O God, who boldest in Thy hand, but hidest from us, all the issues of 
the future years, we beseech Thee to continue over these United States 
Thy watchful and restraining love. Guide our statesmen and our 
magistrates and judges to all that is needful for us, in peace and 
truth and righteousness. Restrain them, we beseech Thee, from all 
injustice, oppression, or wrong. May the truth and justice of God and 
the welfare of the people rule all their actions. 

And if it be Thy will that at the end of another century these walls 
shall still be standing, grant that they may stand with our nation's 
truth and honor steadfast and untarnished. 

All which we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Anien. 

The Grand Centennial Chorus, acconipauied by the United States 
Marine Band, then sang the "Te Deum." 



46 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



CHAIRMAN GARDNER'S INTRODUCTION 

Mr. Lawrence Gardner, Chairman of the Citizens' Committee, 
then spoke as follows: 

One hundred years ago George Washington, the first President of 
the United vSt&tes, standing on this hillside, then almost a wilderness, 
laid the corner stone of the permanent home of Congress, in whose 
majestic shadow we are now assembled. Our written Constitution, 
the beacon light of every freeman, was then but an experiment, of 
which the creation of a national capital, under the exclusive control 
of the legislature, was the most novel feature. Washington City was 

a name; the United States a 
federation of fifteen States, 
sparsely populated, bounded 
on the west by the Missis- 
sippi , and with no port upon 
the great Gulf. 

How conditions have 
changed since Washing- 
ton last stood near this 
hallowed spot! To-day the 
population of the country 
exceeds that of any English- 
speaking people; its area 
has been enlarged from 
927,000 to 3,604,000 square 
miles; its boundaries are 
washed l^y the two great 
oceans. To-day we more 
than realize the hope here 
expressed by Washington, 
before an assemblage small 
in numbers, but strong in that faith that overcometh all human 
obstacles. 

As the country grew, so grew its Capitol, j^ear by year, stone upon 
stone, until, on this its hundredth anniversary, it shows forth the most 
magnificent structure of any age, crowning the most beautiful city of 
the world. 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, as we now 
commemorate the laying of the corner stone of your legislative home, 
it is meet to give thanks for the preeminent part taken by Congress 
in the wonderful development of the system of government to which 
the United States owes its sure and rapid advancement. 




Af tJic CapHoI 47 

To Conc^ress the country is iiidel)ted for the fundamental acts which 
rounded out the frame of the organic law and gave life and vigor to 
all its parts. x\ study of the history of legislative bodies in all lands 
and times will disclose none the superior of the American Congress, 
whether in intelligence, patriotism, or in purity of purpose. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I will not detain you longer. Under the 
direction of the Joint Committee of Congress I have now the pleas- 
ure of introducing to you as Chairman of Ceremonies the worthy 
successor of Washington, the President of the United States, Grovek 
Cleveland. 

PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S ADDRESS 

As President CLEVELAND, the Chairman of Ceremonies, arose 
and removed his hat, taking his stand near the familiar spot 
occupied by him twice before on the occasion of his first and 
second inaugural addresses, the crowd in front broke into a cheer 
which was taken up by the vast throngs beyond. 

The President said: 

While I accept with much satisfaction the part assigned to me on 
this occasion, I can not escape the sober reflections which these cere- 
monies suggest. Those who suppose that we are simply engaged in 
commemorating the beginning of a magnificent structure devoted to 
important public uses have overlooked the most useful and improving 
lesson of the hour. We do indeed celebrate the laying of a corner 
stone from which has sprung the splendid edifice whose grand propor- 
tions arouse the pride of every American citizen, but our celebration 
is chiefly valuable and significant because this edifice was designed 
and planned by great and good men as a place where the principles 
of a free representative go\'ernment should be developed in patriotic 
legislation for the benefit of free people. If representatives who here 
assemble to make laws for their fellow-countrymen forget the duty of 
broad and disinterested patriotism and legislate in prejudice and pas- 
sion or in behalf of sectional and selfish interests, the time when the 
corner stone of our Capitol was laid and the circumstances surrounding 
it will not be worth commemorating. 

The sentiment and the traditions connected with this structure and 
its uses belong to all the people of the land. They are most valuable 
as reminders of patriotism in the discharge of public duty and stead- 
fastness in many a struggle for the public good. They also furnish 
a standard by which our people may measure the conduct of those 
chosen to serve them. The inexorable application of this standard 
will always supply proof that our countrymen realize the value of the 
free institutions which were designed and built bv those who laid the 



48 Capitol Ccntcjinial Celebration 

corner stone of their Capitol, and that they appreciate the necessity of 
constant and jealous watchfulness as a condition indispensable to the 
preservation of these institutions in their purity and integrity. 

I believe our fellow-citizens have no greater nor better cause for 
rejoicing on this centennial than is found in the assurance that their 
public servants who assemble in these halls will watch and guard the 
sentiment and traditions that gather around this celebration, and that 
in the days to come those who shall again commemorate the laying of 
the corner stone of their nation's Capitol will find in the recital of our 
performance of public duty no less reason for enthusiasm and congrat- 
ulation than we find in recalling the wisdom and virtue of those who 
have preceded us. 

When the Chairman of Ceremonies concluded his address the 
cheering was prolonged, and only ceased when the Marine Band 
rendered selections from ' ' Lakme. ' ' 



WILLIAM WIRT HENRY'S ORATION 

The Chairman of Ceremonies, President Cleveland, then arose 
and briefly introduced the orator of the day, Mr. William Wirt 
Henry, of Virginia, as the able and eloquent descendant of 
Patrick Henry. 

Mr. Henry then spoke as follows: 

Fellow-Citizens of the United States: The exercises of to-day 
are a fitting close of the series of centennial celebrations of the most 
important events in our Revolutionary history. Celebrations which 
have presented vividly to the present generation the courage of our 
ancestors in winning our liberties, and their wisdom in forming a 
system of government which has proved a safeguard of the invaluable 
possession. From the skirmish at Lexington on April 19, 1775, when 
the immedicabile vulnus was inflicted wdiich finally severed the ligament 
binding the Colonies to the mother countr}*, to April 30, 1789, when 
Washington was inaugurated as the first President under the Federal 
Constitution, the most important events have been made to pass in 
panorama before our eyes. The attention of the world has been more 
closely attracted by us, and American history has assumed its proper 
position in the forefront, where it is destined to remain as the great 
teacher of advanced civilization, x^nd now it becomes us to celebrate 
the hundredth anniversarj' of the laying of the corner stone of this mag- 
nificent Capitol, the permanent home of the Government of this great 
nation, and thus to complete the roll call of the events which estab- 
lished us among the nations of the earth. 



At the Capitol 



49 



In looking back upon these events how insignificant they appeared 
at the time to the outside world! Our battles were but skirmishes 
as compared with the engagements of the vast armies which had red- 
dened the soil of Europe and Asia in their conflicts. Our Declaration 
of Independence was but bi'utiim fulmcn unless sustained by force of 
arms, which was belie\-ed to be beyond our power. Our first union was 
held by a rope of sand, and even our Federal Constitution, dependent 
as it was upon popular will, was an experiment with a divided people — 
divided as to the wisdom of the plan, and divided as to the construction 
of the instrument. It was confidently predicted by the enemies of our 
free institutions that our experiment would prove a miserable 
failure, and that but a short distance would intervene between its 
cradle and its grave. 

But how different the scene of to-day! 
What grand results have followed from 
our despised beginnings! For more than a 
century we have demonstrated, as no 
other people have ever done before, our 
capacity for self-government. Our Federal 
system has been tested in peace and in 
war, and b}' violent forces from without 
and within, yet every fiber has stood the 
strain, and its perfect adaptation to our 
needs under all circumstances has been 
demonstrated. Yea, more; already the 
hope of our fathers as to the effect of 
our free institutions upon the human race 
has been wonderfully realized. That hope 
was expressed by James Wilson in the Pennsylvania Convention 
which adopted the Constitution when he said: 

By adopting this system we shall probably \a.y a foundation for erecting 
temples of liberty in every part of the earth. It has been thought b}- many 
that on the success of the struggle America has made for freedom will depend 
the exertions of the brave and enlightened of other nations. The advantages 
resulting from this system will not be confined to the United States, but will 
draw from Europe many worthy characters who pant for the enjoyment of 
freedom. It will induce princes, in order to preserve their subjects, to restore to 
them a portion of that liberty of which they have for many ages been deprived. 
It will be subservient to the great designs of Providence with regard to this 
globe^the multiplication of mankind, their improvement in knowledge and 
their advancement in happiness. 

It takes but a cursory view of the present condition of the people 
of Christendom to recognize the liberalizing effect of our Government 
upon their civil institutions. It has been well said by a late writer 
that ' ' at the close of the American Revolution there was in the Old 
World only one free nation and no democracy. In Europe there 
H. Mis. 211 4 




^o Capitol Centemiial Celebration 

now remain but two strong monarchies — those of Russia and Prussia — 
while America, scarcely excepting Brazil and Canada, is entirely (at 
least in name) republican." Since he wrote Brazil has dethroned her 
king and adopted a republican form of government, and there is a 
strong movement in Canada toward union with the United States. 
But while other nations have followed more or less closely in our 
footsteps, striving to enjoy our freedom, how wonderful has been 
our progress in all that makes a nation great! When we consider the 
enlarged extent of our territory, the increase of our population, our 
progress in the arts and sciences, in commerce, in wealth, and in 
knowledge, v/e are forced to exclaim, "God has blessed us, and has 
made His face to shine upon us!" 

With the history of this progress this Capitol has been intimately 
connected. Here the Chief Executives of the nation have taken the 
oath of office and made their communications to Congress. Here the 
wise men of the nation have discussed and formulated the great meas- 
ures of internal and external policy which have placed us in the front 
rank of the nations of the earth. Here treaties with foreign nations 
have been confirmed. Here territory has been annexed, out of which 
new States have been constituted, until, instead of fifteen States east 
of the Mississippi, we have stretched across the continent, and now 
number forty-four States, whose eastern and western shores are washed 
by the great oceans on whose bosoms our commerce is borne to every 
quarter of the globe. Here our vSupreme Court has been .seated, the 
most important tribunal which has ever existed, and great jurists have 
decided grave questions between the States, and have construed our 
system of government, defining and limiting the powers of each 
department and confining it to its appropriate sphere. Here repre- 
sentatives of foreign nations have watched the working of our free 
institutions, and have realized the capacity of man for self-government. 

When we remember the great men who have shed luster on this 
Capitol during the past century, as Presidents, legislators, and jurists, 
we can justly claim an eminence for our Republic which has not been 
excelled, if ever equaled, by any other nation of this or any other age. 

Nor has this city, located by Washington and bearing his honored 
name, failed to realize the expectation of its founder that it would 
become the fitting capital of a great nation. It is now justly claimed 
to be one of the most beautiful and attractive of the capitals of the 
world. Within the century, the .scoffing lines of the poet have become 
a splendid reality. Could he, who in 1804 wrote of the scattered 

village— 

This embryo capital, where fancy sees 
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; 
Which second-sighted seers even now adorn 
With shrines unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn^ 







At the Capitol . rj 

look upon this cit}- to-day, with its quarter of a milhon of inhabitants, 
its beautiful streets and squares bordered with costly residences, its 
splendid monuments and its magnificent public buildings, he would 
realize that the ' ' fancies of the second-sighted seers ' ' of his day have 
been more than fulfilled as real prophecies. 

As I stand here on this commemoration day, two periods in the 
history of this building rise prominent to my view; the first, at the 
beginning of the century which ends to-day. I behold a country not 
yet recovered from the exhaustion of the war which established its inde- 
pendence; with a new system of government not sufficiently tried to 
overcome the friction of its machinery, nor to insure its stability 
and its capacity to check the spirit of anarchy which had been so 
strongly manifested in the nation, and had so seriously threatened 
the dissolution of the Union; with a 
revenue inadequate to meet its liabil- 
ities; without sufficient strength to force 
England to comply with the terms of 
her treaty and surrender the military 
posts on the Great I,akes, and as a con- 
sequence suffering the cruel effects of 
an Indian war believed to have been 
instigated by the British commanders; 
with Spain plotting to get a foothold 
in the Mississippi Valley, by refusing 
to the United States the free naviga- 
tion of that river, whose mouth she 
held, and offering it to the inhabitants 
of the valley as the price of their leav- 
ing the Union and casting their lot 
with her; with open opposition to the 
excise law of Congress, assuming the 
form of an insurrection in west Pennsyl vanik ; but above all with the 
almost maddening effect upon the people of the French Revolution 
followed by war between France and England, which was threatening 
to engulf the newly launched American ship of state in the mael- 
strom of European wars. I see the calm figure of Washington 
holdmg firmly the helm of state as he steers it amidst the storm 
and with that unfaltering faith in the future of his countrv which 
had nerved him to be her deliverer in her darkest hours of trial 
commg to this spot to lay the corner stone of the Capitol of the 
nation he had created, and which he firmly believed would be not 
only the freest but one of the greatest which the world had ever 
known. Behold that majestic form, erect, though burdened with the 
cares of state, and carrying the weight of over three-score years, 




^2 Capitol Ccntcuuial Celebration 

attired with the simple emblems of masonry, descending into the 
trench and laying his hand on the corner stone on which was to be 
erected the permanent Capitol of the United vStates of America; a 
foreshadowing of the time, near at hand, when, divested of all earthly 
cares, he was to descend into the tomb, laying his hand of faith on 
the corner stone not laid with hands, on which was to be reared his 
eternal mansion in the heavens. 

Bnt the scene changes. More than a half centnry has passed, during 
which we have engaged in two wars, one with lingland, in which we 
contested her sovereignty of the seas, and the other with Mexico, 
resulting in a large accession to our western territory, already greatly 
enlarged by treaty. In the meanwhile portentous questions have ari.sen 
between the Northern and Southern States, threatening a dis.solution 
of the Union. African slavery, that baneful legacy of our mother 
country, had been cast out of the Northern States, where it had 
ceased to be profitable, and had become more deeply rooted in the 
Southern States, whose climate and agricultural s>'stem were better 
suited to its existence. A bitter contest had consequently sprung up 
between the sections over the balance of power in the administration 
of the Federal Government. This was made the more alarming by 
the radical difference in the constructions given to the Federal system. 
By the one party it was held to be a government of a nation, and 
that by the adoption of the Federal Constitution each State had merged 
a part of its sovereignty into that of the whole, which could not be 
recalled except by successful revolution. By the other part>' the Fed- 
eral Constitution was held to be a compact between sovereign States, 
each of which had the right to pass upon the legality of Federal acts, 
to nullify their operation, if deemed an infraction of the compact, 
and, as a last resort, to secede from the Union. With such a view of 
the Federal system it is no wonder that many threats of secession 
had been made by parties North and South dissatisfied with Federal 
laws. California had been acquired from Mexico, and, rich in gold, it 
had been soon filled with a population sufficient to form a State. A 
convention of its people framed a constitution which excluded slavery 
from its borders, and with this instrument in hand they knocked at 
the door of Congress for admission during the session of 1849-50. 
To admit her was to destroy the equilibrium between the free and 
slave States, and therefore a fierce struggle at once arose which threat- 
ened the permanency of the Union. Happily two of the greatest 
statesmen and purest patriots our country has ever produced were in 
the councils of the nation, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and Daniel 
Webster, of Massachusetts. By their combined efforts the compro- 
mise measures of 1850 were enacted, which it was fondly hoped would 
settle the sectional strife. 



At the Capitol 



53 



It was at this period that the growth of the nation demanded an 
enlargement of its Capitol. The Fourth of July, 185 1, was fixed for 
the laying of the corner stone of the addition, and the great expounder 
and defender of the Constitution, the foremost of living statesmen, 
the matchless orator, Daniel Webster, was selected to make the 
address. Those who remember him as he lived and moved among men 
easily recall the massive head, the deep-toned voice, the grand 
periods, the profound thought, which held his auditors spellbound 
whenever he spoke. On this occasion we see him but lately transferred 
from the vSenate to the foremost seat in the Cabinet, the conspicuous 
mark for the arrows of sectionalism; yet, firmly fixed in the position 
he had assumed in his celebrated speech on the compromise measures, 
delivered in the Senate the 7th of March, 1850, in which, filled with 
the patriotism which animated the 
first Continental Congress, he had ■ 
uttered the memorable words, " I wish 
to speak to-day not as a Massachu- 
setts man, nor as a Northern man, 
but as an American." Fit .successor 
of the Father of his Country in the 
ceremonies of the daj', we .see his faith 
in the future of the Union emerging 
from the cloud which had overshad- 
owed the political horizon, and while 
he recounts the luiprecedented hap- 
piness and the wonderful progress of 
the country under the Federal Gov-' 
ernment, he appeals to the di.ssatisfied 
to exorci.se the .spirit of disunion, and 
to cling to the Government framed by 
their forefathers as the sheet anchor 
of their liberties, the ark of their .safety, the assurance, doubly sure, 
of their ever-increasing greatness. 

Sectional strife was not, indeed, quelled by the compromise of 1850, 
but fuel was continually added to the flame, till secession, .so long 
threatened, was at la.st attempted by the Southern States. In the 
terrible civil war that followed slavery and secession went down 
together, cla.sped in the embrace of eternal death, and the Union 
survived, more firmly knit by the effort to disrupt it, and blessing a 
nation of freemen. It remains for us now to cast out the spirit of 
sectionalism, that bitter fountain of our woes, and henceforth to unite 
to realize the .sentiment of the poet — 




One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, 
One nation evermore! 



54 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



In the address of Mr. Webster on the Fourth of July, 1851, he 
gave a comparative table of statistics showing the growth of the nation 
between 1793 and 1851. Extending a few of the items of this table 
to the present date, and using reports for 1892 in doing so, we can 
realize our growth within the last forty-two years. 



1S51. 



1893- 



Number of States 

Population of United States 

Amount of receipts into Treasury 

Amount of exports 

Amount of imports 

Area of United States in square miles . 

Number of miles of railroad 

Number of miles of electric telegraph. 

Number of miles of telephone 

Number of universities and colleges . . . 



15 

3, 929, 328 

$5, 720, 624 

$26, 109, 000 

$31, 000, 000 

804, 461 



31 

23, 267, 498 

$52. 312, 980 

$217,517,130 

$215. 725, 995 

3. 314, 365 
10, 2S7 
15,000 



*65, 

$425. 
$1,075, 



44 
000,000 
868, 260 
818, 429 
057, 002 
602, 990 
218, 528 
250, 000 
220, 000 
430 



* Estimated. 

The Christian churches have more than kept pace with the increase 
of population, and they have at least 16,000,000 members. Nor are 
we behind any other nation in our charitable institutions and common 
schools. 

As our wonderful progress as a nation is mainly due to our free 
institutions, it seems appropriate to this occasion that we review brief!}' 
their origin and growth. L,et us approach the task reverently, for in 
listening to the voice of history we will recognize the voice of God, 
and in stud3'ing the past aright we must needs discover the Divinity 
which shapes our ends. 

It is an ennobling thought that from the da}' that God said, " L,et 
the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and 
let the dry land appear," He began to prepare this continent for the 
abode of our race, as the most worthy of the human family. He 
brought forth the mountains and filled them with all the mineral 
wealth needed by the most civilized of men. He placed the mountain 
ranges as sentinels along the shores, charging them to arrest the clouds 
which arise from the seas and force them to water and enrich the earth. 
He placed the great valleys between and caused them ' ' to bring forth 
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after 
his kind," suited for the sustenance of a great nation. He caused 
deep rivers to flow from the mountains, to the north and to the south, 
to the east and to the west. He placed the Gulf in the south and 
the lakes in the north, and made them, with the rivers, convenient 
highways for the commerce of a great and pro.sperous people, and He 
threw over the whole the temperate zone. Having fitted this continent 
for the abode of a people advanced to the highest point of human 



At the Capitol 55 

progress, He hid it from the eyes of civilized man and consigned it 
to the keeping of a savage race. Ignorant of its wealth, they knew 
no use of its grand forests, except to hunt in them; of its broad 
rivers and lakes, except to fish in them; nor of its productive soil, 
except to soak it with the blood of contending tribes. Thus this rich 
continent, best fitted of all for the abode of civilized man, was guarded 
and kept undisturbed for ages, till in the fullness of time God had 
trained up a people worthy to enjoy it. 

The wonderful training of that people is one of the grandest lessons 
of history. 

We have been taught that America is indebted to Great Britain for 
her greatness, but in truth Great Britain is indebted to America for its 
existence among the nations of the earth. The Gulf Stream, rising 
in the torrid zone, after issuing from the Gulf of Mexico, takes its 
course northward along the northeastern shore of North America, 

by which it is deflected till it turns 

across the Atlantic and reaches 

the British Isles, rescuing them 

from the embrace of the frigid zone, 

^giving them a temperate climate 

^'-'suited to the development of the 

1^^ highest type of manhood, and furnish - 

"^^ ing them with the moisture needed 

for a rich vegetation. Through this 

silent, unrecognized influence, exerted 

through unnumbered years, these 

isles have been made to blossom as 

the rose, and enabled to sustain a 

population fitted to lead the world 

in the progress of civilization. It 

was these favored isles which, in the 

providence of God, were selected for the training of the race worthy 

of the rich heritage of North America. 

The Celts, their earliest inhabitants, were not of this favored race; 
nor were their conquerors, the Romans. Imperial Rome regarded not 
her citizens as free agents, but as blind, unquestioning parts of an 
immense political machine. She based her authority upon force, not 
upon the consent of the governed. Her despotic government, by 
crushing all local independence, crushed all local vigor. For nearly 
four hundred years the island of Britain was thus held as a province 
of the Roman Empire. During this period that great power entered 
upon its decline and finally tottered to its fall. In 411 A. D. the 
Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain, in the vain effort to 
defend Italy against the Goths. They never returned, and thus it 
was ordered that the lyatin race was not to possess that fair isle. 




56 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

After the withdrawal of the Roman legions the Britons were set upon 
by the Picts of Scotland and the Scots of Ireland, and finally called 
to their aid the English and Saxons from their home on the peninsula 
which divides the waters of the Baltic from the North Sea. These 
came, A. D. 449, under their chiefs, Hengist and Horsa, and having 
first delivered the Britons from their foes, they then overpowered them 
and became masters of the island. At last the race had come which 
was to permanentl}' possess the island. They were of the Low German 
branch of the Teutonic family — a people who had withstood the arms of 
Rome for more than five hundred years, and were now moving from 
their forest homes to the attack and overthrow of that great empire. 
The Germans presented a striking contrast with the Romans in 
their appearance, domestic life, and civil institutions. The Roman 
historians describe them at the beginning of the second century as 
follows: 

A race pure, unmixed, and stamped with a distinct character. Hence a family 
likeness pervades the whole, though their numbers are so great; eyes stern and 
blue, ruddy hair, large bodies, powerful in sudden exertions, but impatient of 
toil and labor; fenced around with chastity, corrupted by no seductive specta- 
cles, no convivial incitements; supposing somewhat of sanctity and prescience to 
be inherent in the female sex, and therefore neither despising their counsels 
nor disregarding their responses. Almost single among the barbarians, they con- 
tent themselves with one wife. The women take one husband as one body and 
one life, that no thought, no desire may extend beyond him; and he may be 
loved not only as their husband but as their marriage. A person's own children 
are his heirs and successors, and no wills are made. They do not inhabit cities, 
or even admit of contiguous settlements. They dwell scattered and separate, as 
a spring, a meadow, a grove may chance to invite them. In their villages every- 
one surrounds his house with a vacant space. No people are more addicted to 
social entertainments nor more liberal in the exercise of hospitality. To refuse 
any person whatever admittance under their roof is accounted flagitious. Every- 
one, according to his ability, feasts his guest. They worship Oden as their chief 
divinity, and draw his character from their own, delighting to show strength in 
battle, and to execute vengeance on their enemies. They deem it unworthy of 
the grandeur of their deity to confine his worship within walls', or to represent 
him under a human similitude. Woods and groves are their temples, and they 
affix the name of Divinity to that secret power which they behold with the eye 
of adoration alone. Their settlements are around some tree "or mound held 
sacred in their religious rites, and here the people assemble to transact matters of 
government and to decide upon war or peace. They are divided into nations, some 
under kings, some under chiefs. The nations are divided into cantons, each 
under a chief or count, who administers justice in it. The cantons are divided 
into districts, or hundreds, each containing a hundred vills or townships. In 
each hundred is a centenary, chosen by the people, before whom small cases 
are tried and determined, according to the customs of the settlement. Their 
courts of justice are held in the open air, on rising ground, beneath the shade 
of a large tree. They elect their kings and chiefs, having regard to birth and 
fitness, and their generals, having regard to valor. Their kings exercise limited 
authority, and their generals command less through the force of authority than 
example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure 



At the Capitol 57 

obedience from the admiration they inspire. On affairs of smaller moment, the 
chiefs consult; on those of greater importance, the whole community; yet with 
this circumstance, that what is referred to the decision of the people is first 
maturely discussed by the chiefs. It is customary for the several states to present, 
by voluntary or individual contributions, cattle or grain to their chiefs, which are 
accepted as honorary gifts, while they serve as necessary supplies. 

In thi.s description of this stalwart and liberty-loving people we 
easily recognize the rudiments of English character and English insti- 
tutions, which have made the English-speaking people the foremost of 
the world. The distinguishing trait of our German ancestors was the 
individualism and independence of the citizen. With them the citizen 
was not the creature of government, but government was the creature 
of the citizen. The people were the fountain of political power, and 
rulers were their chosen servants. It was well said by Mr. Jefferson, 
when he proposed the figures of Hengist and Horsa for the great 
seal of the United States, that they were "the Saxon chiefs from 
whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose political 
principles and form of government we have assumed." 

While Spain, France, and Italy were equally conquered by the 
Germans, their religion, social life, and administrative order remained 
Roman, and the conquerors became a.ssimilated with the conquered. 
The result was peoples dominated by the Latin race. But in Eng- 
land the result was far different; there the Roman organization of 
government and society disappeared with the people that used it, and 
a purely German nation rose in its stead, a nation whose vitality was 
sufficient to absorb and assimilate the Danes and the Normans that 
in succession conquered the island. For more than one thousand years 
before the discovery of America this people advanced in civilization 
in their isolated island home. Within a century and a half from the 
landing of Hengist upon the isle of Thanet, on the coast of Eng- 
land, Augustine, with a band of monks, landed on the same spot, and 
introduced Christianity, which soon supplanted the worship of Oden 
and gave a new and powerful impulse to the advancement of the nation. 
In the fifteenth century, when the light of the new learning broke upon 
the darkness of the Middle Ages, it shone on no land with greater 
luster than on England, nor with greater practical effects. One of the 
results of the mental activity which this revival of learning stirred 
in Europe was the daring voyage of Columbus in search of a new 
passage to the Indies, which led to the discovery of America. The 
sovereigns of Spain, who fitted out his fleet, claimed the New World 
as their possession. The Pope claimed the right to divide it between 
Spain and Portugal. For one hundred years the Spanish race were 
allowed to settle and occupy it at will, and during that time they 
demonstrated their unfitness to be its possessors. The same sovereigns 
who equipped the fleet of Columbus instituted that most crtiel of 



58 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



all instruments of torture and rapacity, the Spanish Inquisition, and 
under its malign influence Spain attempted to stamp out Protestantism 
in Europe. It was with the same heartless cruelt}' and greed that the 
Spaniards murdered and robbed the natives of America, but their 
thirst for gold reacted on their own land in the neglect of the indus- 
tries which lie at the basis of a nation's prosperity. At the end of 
the centur}^ the population of Spain had decreased four millions, while 
the great agricultural and commercial interests of the nation w^ere in 
a visible decay. It was evident that God had .something better in 
reserve for America than the L,atin races of Europe, with their imper- 
ialism in church and state. 

Separated from the continent, and developing along their own lines, 
3'et absorbing what was best in Europe, the English had now become a 
great nation, under a noble constitution, in which local .self-government 

was happily blended with national author- 
ity, and personal liberty was made secure. 
The customs of their ancestors had crys- 
tallized into the common law% claimed to 
be the perfection of reason. The statute law 
had kept pace w^th the nation's growth, and 
that which was most valuable in the Roman 
/ civil law had been incorporated into their 
system. 

The Great Charter, granted by King John 
the 15th of June, 12 15, and frequently after- 
wards reaffirmed, had limited the power of 
the King and defined and guarded the rights 
of the citizen. The principle of represen- 
tation of the people, peculiar to the Ger- 
mans, had been developed, by which political 
power "could be exercised over large areas without loss of vitality or 
danger of tyranny. The supreme power was exercised by Parlia- 
ment, in which the chosen representatives of the people constituted 
the House of Commons; the Lords, spiritual and temporal, sat in 
the House of Lords; and the consent of the two houses, with that 
of the King, was necessary for the enactment of laws. Courts, pre- 
sided over by learned judges, con.strued the law and administered 
justice. Every citizen was entitled to the shield of the law as a 
protection to his person and his property, and he enjoyed all the 
freedom that was compatible with the necessary powers of government. 
In comparing the English system of government with that of other 
nations, Montesquieu, the great Frenchman, was con.strained to say 
that ' ' the English is the only nation in the world where political 
and civil liberty is the direct end of its constitution." 







Af the Capitol 59 

It is true that t3'rannical kings .were prone to disturb the equihb- 
rium of this well-balanced constitution, but the strong attachment of 
the people to their free institutions sooner or later restored it to its 
proper state, and the tyrants were made to know that the people were 
vested with the supreme power. 

But the English people were not yet prepared to enter upon the 
theater of the New World, on which they were destined to play so 
grand a part. One thing was yet wanting to fit them for the heri- 
tage which had been prepared for them during the ages, and that 
came in the great reformation of the church which resulted from the 
revival of learning and the translation of the Bible. By the end of 
the sixteenth century the doctrines of the Reformation had pervaded 
England, and soon it could be said that the English had become the 
people of one book, and that book the Bible. Its translation consti- 
tutes the noblest example of the English tongue, and from its first 
appearance it became the standard of the language. It was eagerly 
read by the people, and they endeavored to shape their lives by its 
pure precepts. A great Puritan movement began, and had gathered 
immense volume, when the far-seeing Raleigh, the most accomplished 
man of his day, infused into the nation his own enthusiasm for the 
scheme of planting an English nation in the part of North America 
not occupied by the Spaniards. The colonists came not to rob and 
murder the natives, but with a desire to Christianize them and to 
plant EngHsh institutions in the virgin soil of the New World. Old 
Richard Hakluyt expressed the conviction of the English people 
when he wTote, ' ' God hath reser\^ed the country's lying north of 
Florida to be reduced into Christian civility by the English nation." 
In due course of time thirteen English colonies were firmly estab- 
lished along the Atlantic coast, but not without constant struggles 
with the French, who had settled on the north and west, and the 
Spaniards on the south, who with their Indian allies attacked them 
from their several quarters. But Providence had decreed to the Eng- 
lish the possession of North America, and they could not be crushed 
nor their limits reduced. The victory- of Wolfe at Quebec in 1759 
and the subsequent treaty of Paris of 1763 destroyed the French power 
in North America, gave Canada to the English, and extended the 
western boundaries of the Colonies to the Mississippi. Thus the way 
was opened for the Colonies, when they became independent States, 
to extend their po.ssessions to the Pacific and to fulfill the manifest 
destiny of the English race on this continent. 

It was a century and a half after their first planting before the Colo- 
nies were sufficiently developed in population, in wealth, and in free 
institutions to assume for themselves the great trust which awaited 
them. 



6o 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



At their planting they brought with them the rights and privileges 
of Englishmen, secured by their charters. Separated from the mother 
country by a wide ocean, only to be crossed by tedious and dangerous 
voyages, local self-government sprang up and entered upon a vigorous 
growth. County or township government was copied, with improve- 
ments, from county government in England. A.ssemblies, elected upon 
a broad basis of suffrage, were the faithful representatives of the 
people and guardians of their rights, while the governors and councils, 
in imitation of king and lords, were united with the assemblies in the 
enactment of laws. A supervisory control was retained by the English 
Government, but in practice was .seldom exercised. And thus the 
English Colonies were left, in their isolated condition, to their natural 
development, directed by the race characteristics of the people and 

their new surroundings. These conduced to 
the formation of a noble manhood. The 
people were in the main agricultural and 
lived on their farms. The task of subduing 
the earth and defending their homes against 
a treacherous and .savage foe stimulated their 
J, 'courage and self-reliance, while they learned 
the lesson of individual freedom. The Bible 
taught them that every man was responsible 
for his conduct to his Maker. This neces- 
.sitated individual freedom of action, and so 
a Divine sanction was given to the free 
institutions which they had inherited from 
their heathen ancestors. 

The Great Charter, wrested from the weak 
and treacherous John, had been made im- 
pregnable by the statute of Edward I, which 
confirmed to Parliament the exclusive right 
of taxation. These two formed the solid 
basis of the English constitution. The statute was a bulwark of de- 
fense for the charter, for with the power of taxation in the possession 
of the representatives of the people the castle of their liberties was 

impregnable. 

The coloni.sts claimed the exchrsive right of taxing themselves, 
through their assemblies, as they were not represented in Parliament; 
and in no part of the Kingdom was this right more highly valued or 
more closely guarded. 

After the Colonies had become firmly rooted their growth was rapid, 
and their development in material wealth was truly wonderful. By 
the middle of the eighteenth century they numbered one-fourth of the 
population of the mother country, and had become rich and prosperous, 




At the Capitol 6i 

contributing largely to the wealth of Great Britain by their commerce. 
They had also advanced in their ideas of free government far bej'ond 
what was entertained in England, and were not behind her in the 
education and intelligence of the people. There was a tolerance in 
religion which was not known in the mother country or in Europe, 
and which was one of the strongest inducements of the emigration 
which crowded the ships leaving the ports of the Old World. 

It was now that Parliament, under the dictation of a weak but 
stubborn King, and in contravention of the English constitution, 
determined to tax the Colonies without the consent of their assemblies. 
They respectfully remonstrated, then vigorously protested, and finally 
took up arms in defense of the great bulwark of their liberties. God 
gave them the victor^', and the dependent Colonies became independent 
States. In framing their State governments they had the advantage 
not only of their own experience but of the experience of the world, 
and most wisely did they use it. No great revolution was ever led 
by abler men or by purer patriots. Virginia was the first colony 
to assume independence, and her incomparable statesmen, following 
English precedent, framed a bill of rights setting forth the funda- 
mental principles of her new government. This remarkable paper, the 
greatest of its kind ever penned, marked the growth of free institu- 
tions in America. It was copied more or less closely by the other 
States, and became the foundation of American government. Of it 
Mr. Bancroft says: 

The Virginia Bill of Rights formed the groundwork of American institutions. 
It announced governmental principles for all peoples for all time. It was the 
voice of Reason going forth to speak a new political world into being. 

Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights of 1688 had been drawn by 
great statesmen, and had been accepted as the best presentation of 
the rights of freemen ever penned. But the A'irginia Bill of Rights, 
drafted by GEORGE Mason, a Virginia farmer, while embodying all 
that was of permanent value in these two, far excelled them in the 
fullness and clearness with which it states the rights of freemen and 
the fundamental principles of a free State. I^et us glance at its provi- 
sions, upon which has been built the fabric of American Government. 
The first four sections read as follows: 

1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain 
inherent rights of which, when they enter into a state of society, they can not, by 
any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, namely, the enjoyment of life and 
liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and 
obtaining happiness and safety. 

2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that 
magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. 

3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, 
protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various 



62 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

modes and forms of government that is best wliich is capable of producing the 
greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against 
danger of maladministration; and that when any government shall be found 
inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the comnmnity hath an 
indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in 
such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 

4. That no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments 
or privileges from the community but in consideration of public services, which 
not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge 
to be hereditary. 

These sections set forth in most appropriate language the funda- 
mental principles of a free republic, and having been substantially 
reproduced a few weeks afterwards in the Declaration of Independence 
of the Continental Congress, they became the utterance of the conti- 
nent. They annihilate at one blow royalty, aristocracy, and privileged 
class, and boldly proclaim the equality of men before the law, their 
natural right to freedom, and the sovereignty of the people. 

The fifth section declares that the legislative and executive powers 
shall be separate and distinct from the judiciary, and should be con- 
fined to fixed periods, the vacancies to be filled by frequent, certain, 
and regular elections. This was a great advance upon the English 
constitution, under which the legislative department exercised judicial 
powers and the Parliamentary elections were subject to the will of the 
King. It also guarded the purity and independence of the judiciary, 
which are of such vital importance in any system of good government. 
The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and thirteenth sections, securing 
freedom of elections, confining the power of suspending laws to the 
legislature, guarding the rights of persons accused of crime, and pro- 
hibiting standing armies in times of peace, were based upon the 
provisions of the English Bill of Rights of 1688, but were improvements 
upon them. They enlarged the right of suffrage and extended it to 
' ' all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest 
with and attachment to the community," and declared that no law is 
binding upon the people unless assented to through their representa- 
tives. They secured to the accused an open and speedy trial by an 
impartial jury, and provided that he shall not be forced to give evi- 
dence against himself nor be deprived of his liberty except by the law of 
the land or the judgment of his peers. They placed the defense of the 
state upon a trained militia, and made the military in all cases subor- 
dinate to the civil power. This last is the only proper and safe course 
in a free state. Great standing armies in times of peace are not only 
dangerous to the liberties of the people, but by withdrawing large 
bodies of men from the fields of industry and taxing those who remain 
in those fields for their support they retard the prosperity of the state. 

The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
sections were invaluable additions to the English Bill of Rights. They 



At the Capitol 



63 



prohibited general warrants of arrest; declared that jur}^ trial should 
be held sacred in civil controversies; secured the freedom of the press 
as one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty; declared the right of the 
people to uniform government; that free government can only be pre- 
served " by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugal- 
it}^, and \drtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles," 
and that "religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the man- 
ner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, 
not by force or violence, and therefore all men are equally entitled to 
the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience." 
Of these the most valuable is the last, divorcing church and state from 
their debasing union, which for centuries had brought unnumbered 
woes upon mankind. It was the first time that a state had ever 
placed religion on the ground which the 
Founder of Christianity had claimed for it, 
and the principle is now held to be the 
contribution of America to the science of 
government and the chief corner stone of 
our system. It has shed the richest bless- 
ings upon both church and state in Amer- 
ica, and will be the watchword of an ad- 
vancing civilization throughout the world. 

Upon these fundamental principles written 
constitutions were framed by the States 
defining and limiting the powers of gov- 
ernment and limiting the exercise of sov- 
ereign power by the people themselves, 
thus securing permanency to their republican 
form of government. 

But soon another important step was taken 
in the development of our institutions. The 
war of the Revolution had forced the 
Colonies to unite in the defense of their 
common liberties. They had conducted 
their common affairs through a congress, without any articles of con- 
federation, until near the close of the war, and the articles then 
adopted were but a league between sovereign States. The federal 
functions were to be exercised by the Congress, in which each State 
delegation counted but as one vote. The body had no real power 
over the States, and could only ad^'ise them. As has been well 
said: 

It could ask the States for money, but could not compel them to give it; it 
could ask them for troops, but could not force them to heed the requisition; it 
could make treaties, bvit must trust the States to fulfill them; it could contract 
debts, but umst rely upon the States to pay them. 




64 



Capitol CoitciDiial Celebration 



Under such a system, after the pressure of war had been removed, 
there could be nothing- but vState jealousies, internal disorder, weak- 
ness, and finally disintegration. The patriots who had won freedom 
and independence saw this clearl}', and within half a decade after 
the signing of the treaty of peace the Articles of Confederation were 
cast aside and a new union formed under the Federal Constitution. 

This marks the beginning of our history as a nation, and is an era 
in the development of free institutions. The problem before the con- 
vention which framed the Federal Constitution was new and difficult 
indeed, and by many deemed insoluble. It was the creation of a 
nation out of the citizens of the several States without destroying 

the autonomy of the 
States. It was to divide 
the .sovereign power be- 
tween the nation and the 
States, so as to invest 
the nation with ample 
supreme powers to con- 
duct national affairs, and 
to leave with the States 
enough of sovereignty to 
conduct State affairs. It was 
to cause both governments to 
operate directly on the citizen, 
invested with a double citizen- 
?" ship, without a conflict in his 
allegiance. It was to perpet- 
uate republican governments 
111 In' I W^ for both the nation and the States, 
iWT ^m,' each supreme in its functions, and 
so firmly fixed in its allotted 
sphere that they would never clash. 
The able men who solved this 
problem were statesmen of the highest order as well as patriots 
of the greatest purity. They thought they understood clearly their 
work, but they builded better than they knew. The form of govern- 
ment that they constructed has excited the admiration of the world. 
It has .stood every test in peace and in war, and under it a great and 
ever-growing nation has developed, which rejoices more and more, as 
the years roll around, in the incalculable blessings it secures. 

In the structure of the Federal Government the .same principles 
were adopted which lay at the foundation of the State governments. 
The three great departments, legislative, judicial, and executive, were 
made .separate and di.stinct, the executive, however, retaining a condi- 
tional veto upon the legislative department. The legislature was made 




At the Capitol 65 

bicameral, the Senate representing the States equally, the House of 
Representatives the people proportionally. The judiciary was made an 
independent, coordinate branch of the Government, vested with power 
to pass upon the constitutionality of the laws. State and Federal, and 
to declare null and void such as were not in accordance with the Con- 
stitution. Thus the national and State governments were to be kept 
in their appropriate spheres. The Executive was charged with the 
execution of the laws, and was made responsible for his conduct. The 
treaty-making power was vested in him, only to be exercised with the 
consent of the Senate. The powers of the Government were enumer- 
ated and were ample for the great objects of its creation, which were 
stated to be " to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
to our posterity." It has been well .said by an able writer on our 
Government that — 

The framers of this Government set before themselves four objects essential to 
its excellence, namely: 

Its vigor and efficiency. The independence of its departments fas being essen- 
tial to the permanency of its form). Its dependence on the people. The security 
under it of the freedom of the individual. 

The first of these objects they sought by creating a strong executive; the 
second, by separating the legislative, executive, and judicial powers from one 
another, and by the contrivance of various checks and balances; the third, by 
making all authorities elective, and elections frequent; the fourth, both by the 
checks and balances aforesaid, so arranged as to restrain any one department 
from tyranny, and by placing certain rights of the citizen under the protection 
of the written Constitution. 

So jealous were the people of their personal liberty and so deter- 
mined to have their rights secured that without delay they ingrafted 
upon the Constitution ten amendments, eight of them containing a bill 
of rights based upon the Virginia bill, and two of them more clearly 
defining the boundary between the Federal and State governments. 

At the close of the ci^•il war another step forward was taken in the 
amendments which abolished slavery and secured equal privileges and 
immunities to all citizens throughout the Union. Thus our free institu- 
tions have developed until, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, a nation of sixty-five millions of freemen rejoice 
in the liberty which constitutional republican government has assured 
to them. The ancients worshiped their divinities as the guardians of 
their states; we only bow to constitutional law as the guardian of our 
institutions, and, in the language of the eloquent RuFus Choate, we 
can say, "We have built no national temples but the Capitol. We con- 
sult no common oracle but the Constitution." 

When we entered the family of nations as a republic, it was pre- 
dicted that our Government would be shortlived, but now the ablest 
H. Mis. 211 5 



66 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

writers point out elements of permanency in our institutions, chief 
among which is the devotion of our people to their form of govern- 
ment. Yes, to-day, freed from the fears felt by Mr. Webster in 
185 1, we can repeat his noble words with increased emphasis: 

Be it known that on this day the union of the United States of America stands 
firm, that their Constitution still exists unimpaired, and with all its original useful- 
ness and glory; growing every day stronger and stronger in the affections of the 
great body of the American people, and attracting more and more the admiration 
of the world. 

Our forefathers trusted the permanency of the Government they 
founded to the virtue and intelligence of the people. Virtue and 
intelligence! Divine attributes given to man when he was made in 
the image of God! As the two cherubim, with outstretched wings, 
covered and guarded the holy oracle in which was deposited the 
Ark of the Covenant, so may these guard and protect our Constitu- 
tion, in which has been deposited the priceless jewel of liberty, as it is 
transmitted from generation to generation, till time shall end. And 
filled with the patriotic spirit of our founders, may those who admin- 
ister the Government come year by year to this Capitol, and by wis- 
dom in counsel do continued honor to their memor}^ in contributing to 
the happiness of this great people. Illustrious founders! 

Ages on ages shall your fate admire! 
No future day shall see your names expire 
While stands the Capitol, immortal dome! 

At the conclusion of Mr. Henry's oration, the Centennial 
Chorus sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," accompanied by 
the Marine Band, the vast multitude joining in the chorus with 
great effect. 

President Cleveland then arose and said that he had the 
pleasure of introducing a distinguished gentleman to respond 
for "The United States Senate," the Vice-President of the 
United States, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois. 



THE VICE-PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 

Mr. Stevenson was welcomed with prolonged applause as 
President Cleveland led him to the front of the platform, and 
spoke in a most earnest and impressive manner, as follows: 

Fellow-Citizens : This day and this hour mark the close of a cen- 
tury of our national history. No ordinary event has called us together. 
Standing in the presence of this august assemblage of the people, upon 







fm 



At the Capitol 5^ 

the spot where WashingTox stood, we solemnly commemorate the one 
hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the nation's 
Capitol. 

It is well that this day has been set apart as a national holiday that 
all public business has been suspended, and that the President and his 
Cabinet, the members of the great court and of the Congress unite 
with their countrymen in doing honor to the memory of the men who 
one hundred years ago, at this hour and upon this spot, put in place 
the corner stone of the Capitol of the American Republic. The century 
rolls back and we stand in the presence of the grandest and most 
imposing figure known to any age or country. Washington as 
Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, clothed in the symbolic 
garments of that venerable order, wearing the apron and the sash 
wrought by the hands of the wife of the beloved La Fayettk impress- 
ively and m accordance with the time-honored usages of that order 
IS laying his hands upon the corner stone of the future and perma- 
nent Capitol of his country. The solemn ceremonies of that hour 
were conducted by Washington, not only in his office of Grand Master 
of Free Masons, but in the yet more august office of President of the 
United States. Assisting him in the fitting observance of these impress- 
ive rites were representatives of the Masonic lodges of Virginia and of 
Maryland, while around him stood men whose honored names live with 
his m history, the men who, on field and in council, had aided first in 
achieving independence and then in the yet more difficult task of o-arner- 
mg, by wise legislation, the fruits of victory. Truly the centeirnial of 
an event so fraught with interest should not pass unnoticed 

History furnishes no parallel to the century whose close we now 
commemorate. Among all the centuries it stands alone. With hearts 
filled with gratitude to the God of our fathers, it is well that we recall 
something of the progress of the young Republic since the masterful 
hour when Washington laid his hands upon the foundation stone of 
yonder Capitol. 

The seven years of colonial struggle for liberty had terminated in 
glorious victory. Independence had been achieved. The Articles of 
Confederation, binding the Colonies together in a mere "league of 
friendship," had given place to the Constitution of the United States 
that wonderful instrument, so aptly declared by Mr. Gladstone to be 
"the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain 
and purpose of man." 

Without a dissenting voice in the electoral college Washington 
had been chosen President. At his council table sat Jefferson the 
author of the Declaration of Independence; Hamilton, of whom it 
has been said: "He smote the rock of the national resources and 
abundant streams of revenue gushed forth; he touched the dead corpse 
of the public credit, and it sprang upon its feet;" Knox, the brave 



68 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



and trusted friend of his chief during the Colonial struggle, and 
Edmund Randolph, the impress of whose genius has been indelibly 
left upon the Federal Constitution. Vermont and Kentucky, as sov- 
ereign States, coequal with the original thirteen, had been admitted 
into the Union. The Supreme Court, consisting of six members, had 
been constituted, with the learned jurist, John Jay, as its Chief Justice. 
The popular branch of the Congress consisted of but one hundred and 
five members. Thirty members constituted the Senate, over whose 
deliberations presided the patriot statesman, John Adams. The popu- 
lation of the entire country was less than four millions. The village 
of Washington, the capital — and I trust for all coming ages the capi- 
tal — contained but a few hundred inhabitants. 

After peace had been con- 
cluded with Great Britain, 
and while we were yet under 
the Articles of Confederation, 
the se-ssions of the Congress 
were held successively at Prince- 
ton, Annapolis, Trenton, and New 
York. In the presence of both 
Houses of Congress, on the 30th day 
of April, 1789, in the city of New 
York, Washington had been inau- 
gurated President. From that hour — 
the beginning of our Government 
under the Constitution — the Con- 
~^ gress was held in New York until 
1790, then in Philadelphia until 1800, 
when, on November 17, it first con- 
vened in Washington. The necessity 
of selecting a suitable and central place 
for the permanent location of the seat of 
government early engaged the thought- 
ful consideration of our fathers. It can 
not be supposed that the question reached a 
final determination without great embarrassment, earnest discussion, 
and the manifestation of sectional jealousies. But, as has been well 
said, "the good genius of our system finally prevailed," and "a dis- 
trict of territory on the river Potomac, at some place between the 
mouths of the Eastern Branch and the Connogacheague," was, by 
act of Congress of June 28, 1790, " accepted for the permanent seat of 
government of the United States. ' ' 

From the 17th day of November, 1800, this city has been the capital. 
When that day came Washington had gone to his grave John 




At the Capitol 69 

Adams was President, and Jefferson the presiding officer of the Sen- 
ate. It may be well to recall that upon the occasion of the assembling 
for the first time of the Congress in the Capitol President Adams 
appeared before the Senate and the House, in joint session, and said: 

It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to assemble for the 
first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme Ruler of 
the universe and imploring His blessing. You will consider it as the capital of a 
great nation, advancing with unexampled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth 
and population, and possessing within itself those resources which, if not thrown 
away or lamentably misdirected, will secure to it a long course of prosperity and 
self-government. 

To this address of President Adams the Senate made reply: 

We meet you, sir, and the other branch of the National Legislature in the city 
which is honored by the name of our late hero and sage, the illustrious Washing- 
Ton, with sensations and emotions which exceed our power of description. 

From the date last given until the burning of the Capitol by the 
British in 18 14, in the room now occupied by the vSupreme Court, in the 
north wing, were held the sessions of the Senate. That now almost 
forgotten apartment witnessed the assembling of Senators who, at an 
earlier period of our history, had been the associates of Washington 
and of Franki^in, and had themselves played no mean part in crys- 
tallizing into the great organic law the deathless principles of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. From this chamber went forth the second 
declaration of war against Great Britain, and here, before the Senate as 
a court of impeachment, was arraigned a justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States to answer the charge of alleged high crimes and 
misdemeanors. 

With the rolling years and the rapid growth of the Republic came the 
imperative necessity for enlarging its Capitol. The debates upon this 
sttbject culminated in the act of Congress of September 30, 1S50, pro- 
viding for the erection of the north and south wings of the Capitol. 
Thomas U. Walter was the architect to whose hands was committed 
the great work. Yonder noble structure will stand for ages the silent 
witness of the fidelity with which the important trust was discharged. 

The corner stone of the additions was laid by President Fillmore 
on the 4th day of July, 185 1. In honor of that event, and by request 
of the President, Mr. Webster pronounced an oration, and while we 
have a coinitry and a language his words will touch a responsive chord 
in patriotic hearts. Beneath the corner stone was then deposited a 
paper in the handwriting of Mr. Webster, containing the following 
words: 

If it shall hereafter be the will of God that this structure shall fall from its 
base, that its foimdation be upturned and this deposit brought to the eyes of 
men, be it then known that on this day the L^nion of the United States of America 
stands firm, that their Constitution still exists unimpaired, with all its original 



JO 



Capitol Coitoiiiial Celebration 



usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger and stronger in the affections 
of the great body of the American people, and attracting more and more the 
admiration of the world. And all here assembled, whether belonging to public 
life or to private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for the 
preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite in sincere and 
fervent praj-ers that this deposit, and the w'alls and arches, the domes and 
towers, the columns and entablatures now to be erected over it, may endure 
forever. 



From the 6th day of December, 1819, until Janiiar}- 4, 1859, a period 
of thirty-nine 3'ear.s, the sessions of the Senate were held in the pres- 
ent Supreme Court room. This was indeed the arena of high debate. 
When, in an}' age or in any country, has there been gathered within so 
small compass so much of human greatness? To even suggest the 

great questions here discussed and de- 
termined would be to write a histor}- 
of that eventful period. It was indeed 
the coming together of the ma.ster 
spirits of the second generation of Amer- 
ican statesmen. Here were Macon 
and Crawford, Benton, Randolph, 
Cass, Bell, Houston, PrEvSTon, 
Buchanan, Seward, Chase, Crit- 
tenden, Sumner, Choate, Everett, 
B REESE, Trumbull, Fessenden, 
Douglas, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, 
and others scarcely less illustrious. 
Within the walls of that little cham- 
ber was heard the wondrous debate 
between Hayne and Webster. There 
began the fierce conflict of antagonistic 
ideas touching the respective powers of 
the States and of the nation — a conflict 
which, transferred to a different theater, 
found final solution only in the bloody 
arbitrament of arms. 

For a little more than a third of a 
century the sessions of the Senate have 
been held in the magnificent chamber of the north wing of the Cap- 
itol. Of the procession of sixty-two Senators that, preceded by the 
Vice-President, Mr. Breckinridge, entered that Chamber for the first 
time on the 4th day of January, 1859, but four survive. Not one 
remains in public life. It is indeed now a procession of shadows. 

When the foundation stone of this Capitol was laid, our Republic 
was in its infancy and self-government yet an untried experiment. 
It is a proud reflection to-day that time has proved the true arbiter, 




At the Capitol 71 

and that the capacity of a free and intelHgent people to govern them- 
selves b}- a written constitution and laws of their own making is no 
longer an experiment. The crucial test of a century of unparalleled 
material prosperity has been safely endured. 

In 1793 there was no city west of the Alleghanies. To-day a single 
city on L,ake Michigan contains a population of a little less than one- 
half that of the Republic at the time of the first inauguration of 
Washington. States have been carved out of the wilderness, and 
our great rivers, w^hose silence met no break on their pathway to the 
sea, are now the arteries of our interior trade, and bear upon their 
bosoms a connnerce which surpasses a hundredfold that of the entire 
countr}' a century ago. 

From fifteen States and four millions of people we have grown to 
fifty States and Territories and sixty-seven million people; from an 
area of eight hundred and five thousand to an area of three million 
six hundred thousand square miles; from a narrow strip along the 
Atlantic seaboard to an unbroken possession from ocean to ocean. 
How marvelous the increase in our national wealth! In 1793 our 
imports amounted to $31,000,000 and our exports to $26,000,000. 
Now our imports are $847,000,000 and our exports $1,030,000,000. 
Thirty-three million tons of freight are carried on our Great Lakes, 
whose only burden then w^as the Indian's canoe. Then our national 
wealth was inconsiderable; now our assessed valuation amounts to the 
enormous sum of $24,650,000,000. Then trade and travel were depend- 
ent upon beasts of burden and sailing vessels; now steam and electricity 
do our bidding, railroads cover the land, boats burden the waters, the 
telegraph reaches every city and hamlet, distance is annihilated, and — 

Civilization, on her luminous wings. 
Soars, Phoenix-like, to Jove. 

In the presence of this wondrous fulfillment of predicted greatness 
prophecy looks out upon the future and stands dumb. 

When this corner stone was laid, France, then in the throes of revo- 
lution, had just declared war against Great Britain, a war in which all 
Europe eventually became involved. Within a century of that hour, in 
the capital of France, there convened an international court, its pre- 
siding officer an eminent citizen of the French Republic, its members 
representatives of sovereign European states, its object the peaceable 
adjustment of controversies between Great Britain and the United 
States. 

Was it Richelieu, Mr. President, who said, "Take away the sword! 
States can be saved without it "? 

In no part of our mechanism of government was the wisdom of our 
fathers more strikingly displayed than in the division of power into 
the three great departments — legislative executive, and judicial. In 



72 



Capitol Ccntoinial Celchration 



an equal degree was that wisdom manifested by the division of the 
Congress into a Senate and House of Representatives. Upon the Sen- 
ate the Constitution has devolved important functions other than those 
of a mere legislative character. Coequal with the House in matters 
of legislation, it is, in addition, the advisor}^ body of the President in 
appointments to office and in treating with foreign nations. The 
mode of election, together with the long term of service, unquestion- 
ably fosters a spirit of conservatism in the Senate. Always organized, 
it is the continuing body of our National lyCgislature. Its members 
change, but the Senate continues the same now as at the first hour of 
the Republic. Before no human tribunal come for determination issues 

of weightier moment. It 
were idle to doubt that 
problems yet lie in our 
pathway as a nation as 
difficult of solution as any 
that in times past have 
tried the courage or tested 
the wisdom of our fathers. 
Yet may we not confi- 
dently abide in the faith 
that in the keeping of 
those who succeed the 
illustrious sages I have 
named the dearest inter- 
ests of our country will 
be faithfully conserved, 
and, in the words of an 
eminent predecessor — 

Though these marble walls 
molder into ruin, the Senate, 
in another age, may bear into 
a new and larger chamber the 
Constitution, vigorous and in- 
violate, and that the last gen- 
eration of posterity shall witness the deliberations of the representatives of 
American States, still united, prosperous, and free. 




And may- 



Our fathers' God, from out whose hand 
The centuries fall like grains of sand — 



continue to the American people throughout all the ages the prosperity 
and blessings which He has given to us in the past. 

The Marine Band then played a potpourri of national airs 
arranged by Professor Fanciulli. 




o 



At the Capitol 



73 



SPEAKER CRISP'S ADDRESS 

President Cleveland then introduced, to respond for "The 
United States House of Representatives," Charles Frederick 
Crisp, Speaker of the House, who was received with cheer upon 
cheer. 

Mr. Crisp said, turning to President Cleveland: 

Mr. Chairman: When the corner stone of this great Capitol was laid, 
our Constitution was not six years oid. Government by the people had 
barely reached the experimental stage. There 
were but fifteen States in the Union. Our 
population was less than four millions, and the 
House of Representatives, for which I now 
speak, was composed of only one hundred and 
five members. To-day, one hundred years 
thereafter, our Constitution still exists unim- 
paired; government by the people has been 
firmly established; our population exceeds 
sixty-seven millions, and the House of Repre- 
sentatives is composed of three hundred and 
fifty-six members. 

During the century which has passed since 
Washington stood where we now stand, the 
world has watched with wonder and amazement 
the marvelous growth and development of our 
country. When that century began we were 
"weak in resources, burdened with debt, just 
struggling into political existence, and agitated 
by the heaving waves which were overturning 
European thrones. ' ' Its end finds us strong in 
resources, strong in wealth and credit, strong 
in numbers, and strong in the affection of an 
intelligent and united people. In all that con- 
stitutes real greatness the United States is to-day the foremost nation 
of the earth. 

In behalf of all present I am sure I will be permitted to say we 
devoutly thank Almighty God for the wisdom and patriotism of the 
founders of our Government. We thank Him for the peace, the pros- 
perity, the freedom, and the happiness of our people; and we do all 
most sincerely and fervently pray that our constitutional Union may 
endure forever. 

The next musical number, "The Heavens are Telling," from 
the "Creation," was rendered by the Centennial Chorus, accom- 
panied by the Marine Band. 




74 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 




JUSTICE BROWN'S ADDRESS 

(HE President then introdnced Mr. 

Justice Henry Billings Brown, 

of the Supreme Court of the 

United States, to respond for 

"The Judiciary." 

sell— Mr. Brown said: 

Mr. Chairman : This grand and beauiful 
building, whose centennial anniversary we 
are met to celebrate, was designed primarily as the official abode of the 
Congress of the United States, but from its completion to the present 
day it has also been the seat of its highest court. The judiciary act 
of 1789 required the sessions of the Supreme Court to be held at the 
seat of government, which was then the city of New York; and at 
the Exchange in that city, in February, 1790, the court w^as organ- 
ized, and the judges, with Chief Justice John Jay at their head, were 
sworn and qualified according to law. Nothing appears to have been 
done, however, beyond the appointment of subordinate officers and the 
entertainment of the court at an elaborate banquet ( a feature religiously 
commemorated at its centennial in 1890), until the February term of 
1 791, when the court met in the .south chamber of the city hall, in 
the city of Philadelphia, to which place the seat of government had 
been removed, and continued its sessions there until 1801, when it 
was finally transferred to Washington. 

Its sessions in Philadelphia would not have been memorable but for 
the great case of Chisholm against the State of Georgia, in which the 
majority of the court held that an action would lie by an individual 
against a .sovereign State of the Union. This case marked the begin- 
ning of a conflict between the Federal Government and the States 
which agitated the court for the next .seventy years, and still occa- 
sionally engages its attention. By this generation, accustomed as it 
is to the prompt and cheerful acquiescence of the public in its deci- 
sions, the excitement created by this ca.se can .scarcely be realized. 
The State of Georgia not only denied its obligation to appear, pro- 
tested against the juri.sdiction of the court, and declined even to 
submit an argument in its own behalf, but refu.sed to obey the judg- 
ment, and denounced the penalty of death against anyone who .should 
presume to execute final process within its jurisdiction. The popu- 
lar prejudice against the decision finally culminated in a constitutional 
amendment which practically nullified the judgment of the court and 
inhibited private actions again.st a State. Plain as this provision seems 



At the Capitol 75 

to be, this amendment, so far from putting at rest the suability of a 
State, has been pregnant with litigation to the present da}-. 

The vigorous life of the Supreme Court ma}^ be said to have begun 
with the appointment of John Marshall as Chief Justice, and the 
contemporaneous transfer of its sessions to a room in the basement of 
this Capitol, beneath the Chamber of the Senate. The court met here 
in August, 1 801, and for the next sixty years, the most important in 
the history of the court, this vaulted and gloomy crypt continued to 
be its home. In this apartment were pronounced the great opinions 
which established the fame of Marshall as the expounder of the 
Con.stitution and the foremost jurist of the century. The Constitution 
had been adopted by the vote of the thirteen States of the Union, but 
its construction was a w^ork scarcely less important than its original, 
creation. With a large liberty of choice, guided by no precedents, 
and generally unhampered by his colleagues upon the bench, the great 
Chief Justice, determining what the law was by what he thought it 
ought to be, evolved, from his own experience of the defects of the 
Articles of Confederation and from an innate consciousness of what the 
country required, a theor}' of construction which time has vindicated 
and the popular sentiment of succeeding generations has approved. 
In the case of Marbury v. Madison, which arose at his very first term, 
he declared the judicial power to extend to the annulment of an act 
of Congress in conflict with the Constitution, a doctrine peculiar to 
this country, but so commending itself to the common sense of justice 
as to have been incorporated in the jurisprudence of every State in 
the Union. The lack of this check upon the action of the legislature 
has wrecked the constitution of many a foreign state, and it is safe to 
say that our own would not have long survived a contrary decision. 
Had Marshall rendered no other service to the country, this of itself 
would have been sufficient to entitle him to its gratitude. 

The fame of Marshall rests upon less than thirty of his opinions. 
He rarely cited an authority, but the reasons he gave were .so cogent 
that no amount of authority would have strengthened them. While his 
opinions lack the exhaustive research of Justice Story's, they surpass 
them in vigorous logic, and seem like the summing up and compendium 
of all prior adjudications upon the subject. His associates upon the 
bench were worthy compeers of such a man. Beside him sat Bushrod 
Washington, a favorite nephew of the General; a man of small and 
emaciated frame, but a laborious student, sound in judgment, "clear in 
statement and learned in discussion;" a Federalist of the Marshall type 
and a judge "fearless, dignified, and enlightened," whose opinions have 
always commanded the respect of the profession. Here also sat Wil- 
liam Paterson, who had been a Senator from New Jersey, and one 
of the authors of the famous judiciar> act of 1789. Here, too, was 
Story, wdio has been called the Walter Scott of the common law, 



76 Capitol Cciitcinn'al Celebration 

the foremost juridical writer of his age, a student whose passion for 
research halted not at the confines of the law of England and America, 
but embraced all that was accessible in the ancient and modern juris- 
prudence of continental Europe — an author whose works were as well 
known and much respected in Westminster Hall as in the court rooms 
of his native country. While his fame as a writer has eclipsed to a 
certain extent his labors as a judge, his opinion upon circuit in the case 
of De Lovio v. Boit is luisurpassed in learning and research, and may be 
justh' said to have laid the foundations of our admiralty jurisprudence. 

The bar was not less illustrious than the bench. At its head was 
Edmund Randolph, first Attorney-General of the United States, whose 
fearless conduct of the Chisholm case against the State of Georgia, un- 
popular as it was, elicited even the admiration of his enemies; William 
PiNCKNicv, the most eminent lawyer of his age, who united profundity 
of thought and brilliancy of expression to an extent never equaled, 
except possibly by RuFUS Choate; William Wirt, the most persua- 
sive orator of the bar, who argued against his native State the power of 
Congress to incorporate a bank; General Walter Jones, pronounced 
b}' Marshall ' ' the finest constitutional lawyer who ever argued a 
case before him;" Daniel Webster, then in the fullness of his intel- 
lectual vigor, pleading in a voice choked with emotion for the life of 
his alma mater, and later defending the Christian religion against an 
alleged stigma cast upon it in the will of Stephen Girard; Dexter, 
of Massachusetts; Hoffman, Ogden, and Emmet, of New York; 
Ingersoll, Sargent, and Binney, of Pennsylvania; Martin and 
Harper, of Maryland, and a score of others scarcely less notable, who 
contributed to make of this the golden age of American oratory. 

The first and what may be termed the Federalistic era of the Supreme 
Court terminated with the death of Marshall in 1S35. In a judicial 
career of thirtj'-four years he had so borne himself as not only to win 
the applause of his friends but the respect of his political opponents. 
He had not only settled the construction of the Constitution upon a 
broad and liberal basis, but he had inuneasurably increased the impor- 
tance of the court. From a tribunal of little apparent consequence he 
had raised it to the dignity of a coordinate branch of the Government. 

It seems somewhat strange to the present generation that the first 
Chief Justice should have resigned to accept the governorship of New 
York, and have subsequentl)' declined a reappointment because, to 
use his own language, he was " perfectly convinced that under a sj's- 
tem so defective it would not obtain the energy, weight, and dignity 
which were essential to its affording due support to the National Gov- 
ernment, nor acquire the public confidence and respect which, as the 
last resort of the justice of the nation, it should possess." The little 
esteem in which the court was held induced Harrison, a nominee of 
Washington, to decline a seat upon the bench to take the chancel- 



At the Capitol 



77 



lorship of Maryland; and its removal to this city seemed of so little 
importance that its first meeting and organization here were noticed 
by only a single sentence in the National Intelligencer. 

The death of Marshali^ was soon followed by the elevation of RoGER 
B. Taney to the Chief Justiceship, and an almost entire reconstruction 
of the bench by Jackson and Van Buren. This, which may be called 
the States' rights era, continued until the middle of the civil war, when 
the court was again partly reconstructed by President lyiNCOLN. While 
Chief Justice Taney went upon the bench staggering under a load of 
unpopularity in the Whig States — an unpopularity which had once 
caused his rejection by the Senate for the office of Associate Justice — 
it must be conceded that he 
was a worthy successor 
Marshall. Thouj 
feeble in body, his int 
lectual grasp was 
something won- 
derful. He w^as 
prompt and deci- ^^^^'^'^''^^ 
sive in action, vig- h 

orous in expression, ^ 
spotless in in teg-" 
rity, and in his 
manner the ex- 
treme of courtesy. 
While his person- 
ality dominated the bench 
for twenty-five years al- 
most as completely as hac 
Marshall, he was supported by men 
of distinguished abilit}- and large expe- 
rience — John McLean, of Ohio, whose dissenting opinion in the 
great case of Pri gg against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, read 
after the lapse of fifty years, makes us wonder the majority of the 
court could have gone so far astray; Wayne, of Georgia, and Catron, 
of Tennessee, who earned at least the gratitude of the North for 
their resolute adherence to the Union after the outbreak of the civil 
war; Peter V. Daniel, of Virginia, the strongest champion of States' 
rights who ever sat upon the bench, a man of great learning, sturdy 
independence, and strict integrity, who devoted a long judicial life of 
nineteen years largely to the writing of dissenting opinions; Nelson, 
of New York, of venerable and leonine aspect; Grier, of Pennsylva- 
nia, who had well earned the compliment paid him by President 
Grant upon his retirement, that by his patriotic firnuiess he had 
"upheld the just powers of the Government and vindicated the right 




yS Capilol Crutciuiial Crlebraliou 

of the nation to maintain its own existence;" Benjamin R. Curtis, 
of Massachnsetts, one of the greatest minds that ever adorned the bench, 
who wonld have been the most eminent judge of the court if he had 
not resigned after a service of six years to become its most eminent 
practitioner. 

In i860, after the removal of the Senate to its new Chamber in the 
north wing of the Capitol, the vSupreme Court was transferred to the 
room it now occupies. This room, beautiful in itself, and made more 
beautiful by the removal of the galleries which had encircled its walls, 
had already become historic as the theater of the greatest forensic dis- 
plays of an age when oratory had still preserved its classic traditions 
and had lost nothing of its potency as a moving power of legislative 
bodies. But the great men of that generation were no longer there. 
Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, and Wright were all dead, and 
a new generation of Senators had risen up to take their places. The 
daj's of eloquent appeal, fierce denunciation, and heated strife were 
past. Henceforth this Chamber was dedicated to the calm deliberations 
of the bench. 

The third era of the Supreme Court, which continues to this day, 
may be said to have begun in 1862 with the appointment of Justices 
Swayne, Miller, and Davis, and the subsequent elevation of Chase 
to the Chief Justiceship. This era, too, has been productive of great 
judges. Time forbids that I should do more than mention the name 
of Chase, whose laurels as the great War Secretary were not dimmed 
by his servnce upon the bench; of Waite, the very ideal of an accom- 
plished lawyer and courtly gentleman; of MillER, whose mas.sive head 
did not belie his massive intellect, and whose fame as a constitutional 
lawyer is second onl}^ to that of the great Chief Justice; of Matthews, 
a patriotic soldier, a Senator of the United States, and the most elo- 
quent orator of the court; of the chivalrous Lamar, whose kindly 
smile and genial manner captivated the hearts of men and women 
alike; of Bradley, who concealed beneath the visage of an Italian 
cardinal the most marvelous versatility of genius, a lawyer equally at 
home in all branches of the profession, real estate, mining, patents, 
equity, admiralty, and the civil law, a linguist, a mathematician, an 
astronomer, and a philosopher; and the lamented Blatchford, pains- 
taking and indefatigable, who loved work for its own sake, and whom 
the allurements of an ample fortune could not seduce from his chosen 
field of labor. 

It is invidious to speak of the living, yet I can not forbear alluding 
to the venerable survivor of that illustrious trio who for more than 
twenty years swayed the opinion of the court; one who sits with 
us to-day, his eye not yet dinnned nor his natural force abated, a 
reminder of what the court has been in the past, a promise of what it 
shall continue to be in the future. 



At the Capitol 79 

It does not become me to eulogize the Supreme Court, but it may 
be justly said that while it has had weak men history makes no men- 
tion of its having had a corrupt one. 

If as at present constituted it neglects to fulfill its mission it will 
not be from a failure of its members to fully appreciate their respon- 
sibility or the lack of an earnest desire to meet the just expectations 
of the people. 

I can not better close than by reiterating the hope expressed by 
the House of Representatives in its reply to President Adams upon 
the dedication of this building, that — 

The spirit which animated the great founder of this city may descend to future 
generations, and that the wisdom, magnanimity, and steadiness which mark the 
events of his public life may be imitated in all succeeding ages. 

Next on the programme was the "Centennial March," com- 
posed by Professor Fanciulli for the occasion, and rendered by 
the full Marine Band with exquisite effect. 

COMMISSIONER PARKER'S ADDRESS 

After the applause with which the music was received had 
somewhat subsided, President CLEVELAND announced that "The 
District of Columbia" would be responded for by Mr. Myron M. 
Parker, one of the Board of Commissioners of the District of 
Columbia, Mr. John W. Ross, President of the Board of Commis- 
sioners of the District of Columbia, having been prevented by an 
accident from making preparation for that duty. 

Mr. Parker, ttmiing toward Mr. Cleveland, said: 

Mr. Chairman: The ceremonies that are transpiring here to-day 
will occupy an important page in the history of our country. The cele- 
bration of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner 
stone of the United States Capitol will be of unusual interest to the 
people of our land, while to the citizens of Washington it is an event 
of more than local importance, since it will emphasize our wondrous 
growth and greatness. All Governments point with pride to their 
respective capitals. To speak of London is to refer to England; the 
name of Paris covers that of France. If you would refer to Austria, 
you have only to mention Vienna; while Rome, with her eternal 
hills, overshadows Italy. So, too, of our own beloved countn,^ a 
unification of States, with a rapidly increasing population of sixty-five 
millions of people, ^xoxy one of whom is thrilled with pride and 
patriotism at the mention of Washington, their beautiful capital. 

The application of these proceedings from an executive, legislative, 
and judicial standpoint has been appropriately considered by the Pres- 



8o 



Capitol CfJitciniial Celebration 



ident and Vice-President of the United States, by the honorable Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, and by Mr. Justice Brown, of the 
Supreme Court; and from a national standpoint in an eloquent address 
by the Hon. William Wirt Henry, of Virginia. It is fitting, there- 
fore, that as one of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia I 
should speak of the event which these imposing ceremonies comme- 
morate with respect to the influences which have resulted to the city 
of Washington locally. To properly discuss this subject would occupy 
much more than the time allotted me by the Committee. I must 
therefore refer briefly to some of the material points. 

The location of the national capital was a subject of much contention 
between the North and the South. Claimants for the honor of provid- 
ing a permanent seat of government 
were made unyielding in their de- 
mands by State pride and State jeal- 
ousy. Sectional animosities also added 
to the bitterness of the controversy. 
Congress found this subject a fruit- 
ful source of wrangling. This body 
met in different places, according as 
convenience suggested or necessity 
compelled, naming from time to time 
different locations, only to reverse its 
decision at the next discussion of the 
subject. It will be remembered that 
the proposed site on the Potomac, sup- 
ported by many Southern members, 
was repeatedly rejected. 

In 1783 a location on the Delaware 
was thought more desirable than the 
one on the Potomac, and in 1784 
Congress appointed a commission to 
select a site upon the former river. 

That this selection was not made 
is well known to the country, and 
the contention was left to the first Congress meeting under the Con- 
stitution. Upon the meeting of this body the wrangle became more 
heated than ever before. Philadelphia, Germantown, Havre de Grace, 
Wrights Ferry, on the Susquehanna, and a location on the Potomac 
were each urged as having the strongest claims. 

The persistency of Mr. Madison and other Southern members finally 
prevailed, and in July, 1790, the House, by a vote of thirty-two to 
twenty-nine, and the Senate, by a vote of fourteen to twelve, decided 
in favor of the Potomac. 




Af ihc Capitol 81 

After years of preparation for the event, during which period the 
site was selected by President Washington, work on the several 
buildings was begun, and Washington, as the nation's capital, came 
into being. 

Since 1800, the date on which the archives of the Government were 
brought from Philadelphia in ' ' seven large boxes and four or five 
smaller ones, ' ' there have been periodical attempts to remove the seat 
of government, which removal would, of course, have been the death 
knell of Washington. An Englishman named Weld, who visited the 
future capital in 1796, said: 

Notwithstanding all that has been done at the city and the large sums of money 
which have been expended, there are numbers of people in the United States 
living to the north of the Potomac, particularly in Philadelphia, who are still 
very adverse to the removal of the seat of government thither, and are doing all 
in their power to check the progress of the buildings in the city and to prevent 
the Congress from meeting there at the appointed time. 

A sample of the attacks upon the capital maybe found in Crito's 
Letters on the Seat of Government, published in 1807. He says: 

In the meantime be it known to the good people of the Union from New 
Hampshire to Georgia (for I may presume without fear of contradiction that 
ninety-nine hundredths of the youth of the United States grow up to manhood 
without ever having seen the capital of their country) that the national bantling 
called the city of Washington remains, after ten years of expensive fostering, a 
rickety infant, unable to go alone. Nature will not be forced. A sickly child 
can not be dressed and dandled into a healthy constitution. This embryo of 
the state will always be a disappointment to its parents, a discredit to the fond 
opinions of its worthy godfathers and godmothers, and an eyesore to all its 
relations to the remotest degree of consanguinity. 

Crito conclttdes his advice by recommending that the seat of gov- 
ernment be removed to Philadelphia. 

The last attempt to remove the capital was made in 1869 by L. U. 
ReavIvS and others, in and out of Congress, St. Louis being the city 
that was to become the future capital. Mr. Reavis, in his book, says: 

I unhesitatingly answer that the change will be made within five years from 
January i, 1869, and before 1875 the President of the United States will deliver 
his message at the new seat of government in the Mississippi Valley. 

There were many infltiences about this time which tended to check 
and finally to wnpe out all efforts having in view the removal of the 
capital. 

Under the leadership of a man of high character, great executive 
ability and determination, a man with broad, comprehensive views, a 
system of public improvements was inaugurated and carried to a suc- 
cessful conclusion which so changed the character and condition of our 
city as to place it at the beginning of a new era, an era of prosperity 
which in an unprecedented manner has continued to exist and which 
H. Mis. 211 6 



82 Capitol Coitcjiuial Celebration 

will continue to exist so long as the Government lasts. As Baron 
Haussmann was to Paris so was Governor Shepherd to Washington. 
Under his guiding hand a new city was born, the hopes of the immortal 
Washington and L' Enfant were realized, and Washington was finally 
accepted by the people of the United States as the national capital, the 
nation's home. 

Let us look for a moment at the physical conditions of the cit}' up 
to 1875. Charles W. Jansen, an Englishman, said of us in 1806: 

Strangers, after viewing the offices of state, are apt to inquire for the cit}' while 
they are in its very center. 

Oliver WolCOTT, while Secretary of the Treasury, and Mrs. Presi- 
dent Ad.\ms complained of the scattered condition of the houses. In 
1 8 14, after the Secretary of War had sneered at the suggestion that 
the British might molest the "Sheep-walk, " and after the national 
representatives, more than our own local defenders, had permitted the 
city to be captured, it had the following appearance: 

Twelve or fifteen clusters of houses, at a considerable distance from each other, 
bringing to our recollection the appearance of a camp of nomad Arabs, which, 
however, if connected together, would make a very respectable town, not much 
inferior, perhaps, to the capital of Virginia, the whole of it, when seen from the 
ruins of our public edifices, looking more like the place where proud Washington 
once stood than where humble Washington now lies. 

In 1839, George Combe, the British traveler, described the cit}^ as 
"like a large straggling village reared in a drained swamp." 

At about this period our corporation laws prohibited hogs from 
running at large ' ' south of Massachusetts avenue ' ' under penalt}' of 
seizure. All the land north of that a\-enue was free pasturage. As 
late as 1862, speaking of Massachusetts avenue, Anthony Trollope 
says: 

Massachusetts avenue runs the whole length of the city, and is inserted on the 
maps as a full-blown street about four miles in length. Go there and you will find 
yourself not only out of town, away among the fields, but you will find yourself 
beyond the fields, in an uncultivated wilderness. Tucking your trousers up to 
your knees, you will wade through the bogs, you will lose yourself among rude 
hillocks, you will be out of the reach of humanit}'. 

Let us contrast this truthful description of thirty years ago with the 
present Massachusetts avenue, lined on either side with magnificent 
residences, and we can reach a fair conclusion of the phenomenal growth 
and prosperity of Washington. The Congress of the United States 
selected Washington and laid it out on a magnificent scale, the wisdom 
of which has been justified by the experience of a century. So broad 
and comprehensive was this plan that our people found themselves 
almost in a condition of bankruptcy in their effort, unaided by the 
General Government, to erect buildings and improve streets. 



At the Capitol 83 

We find, therefore, that after much wrangHng and contention the 
capital was located on the Potomac, in a comparative wilderness, and 
abandoned by the General Government so far as financial aid was 
concerned. 

Congress, while liberal in the expenditure of the people's money, 
declined to appropriate money to make the national capital attractive. 
For years the capital intrusted to its keeping continued to be an object 
of derision and contempt. Aye, more than that — it contributed by its 
own neglect to make more wretched the city's forlorn condition, and 
then joined in the laugh at the latter' s expense. 

Finding this to be the unhappy condition, let me occupy a moment 
of your time with a brief statement of what our city has done for 
itself and the General Government. 

First, it must be remembered that the United States owns one-half 
of all the property in the District, on which it pays no taxes, and 
prior to 1878 it never contributed anything for the .support of our 
local government. 

When the capital was located in Wa.shington our citizens donated 
five-sevenths of all the land in the city of Washington for streets 
and avenues — fifty- four per cent of the entire area for parks and res- 
ervations, or five hundred and forty-one acres. One-half of all the 
city lots were given to help erect public buildings and to open and 
improve streets. Up to 1835 the citizens (the population at that time 
had only reached thirteen thousand) had expended for street improve- 
ments, mostly around public buildings, $430,000; the United States, 
$209,000. From 1790 to 1878, almost a century, the Government 
expended (aside from public buildings) less than $6,000,000; the citi- 
zens, $45,000,000. From 1879 to 1887 our people invested in new 
buildings $32,000,000. They paid a direct tax of $20,000 for the war 
of 1812, fitted up a building for Congress when the Capitol was burned, 
and tendered a loan of $500,000 to rebuild the public buildings, which 
Congress accepted. During the last war we paid a direct tax of 
$50,000. We have paid an internal-revenue tax of $6,454,907, and in 
one year twice as much as any of the Territories, except Dakota, and 
more than either of the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Missis- 
sippi, Nevada, South Carolina, or Vermont. 

We supplied our share of volunteers for the war of 1S12 and the 
Mexican war. In the late war we furnished our full quota and 
eighteen and one-half per cent over, while but seven States filled 
their quota and only one equaled the District. In the late war the 
first volunteers were citizens of the District. 

The Government has given to the States $28,000,000 in money, 
90,000,000 acres of public lands for schools and 155,000.000 acres 
for railroads. The District of Columbia has never been given a dollar 
or an acre of ground. 



84 



CapiloJ Ccuffiiuial Celebration 



It must not be thought that we do not appreciate the benefits that 
have resulted from the milhons that have been expended by the 
Government in the erection of pubhc buildings, nor are we lunnindful 
of the fact that since 1878 the Government has borne her share of the 
expenses; but we do claim that Washington has done far more for 
herself and the General Government than should have been expected 
by Congress. 

We have had three different forms of government. From January 
23, 1791, to June I, 1802, the local government was vested in a board 
of three Conunissioners appointed l)y the President. From 1802 to 
18 1 2 the Mayor was appointed by the President. From 18 12 to 1820 

the Mayor was elected by the 
Aldermen and Common Coun- 
cil. In 1 87 1 the government 
was changed to Territorial in 
fgrm and so continued until 
1874, first Hknry D. Cooke 
and later Alexander R. 
• Shepherd having been ap- 
pointed governors by the Pres- 
ident. Congress, in 1874, 
again changed our govern- 
ment to a board of three 
Commissioners to be ap- 
pointed b}' the President. 
This form of government is 
now in force, and is believed 
to be the best municipal form 
of government in existence. 
Under its provisions we are 
free from political broils and 
entanglements. Those who 
have been selected for the high and responsible position of Commis- 
sioners have been men of high character, every dollar contributed by 
our taxpayers and the General Government having been religiously 
accounted for. The government of the District of Columbia is free 
from even the suspicion of jobbery. 

Our population in 1796 was 1,493; i" i860, 75,080; while to-day we 
number about 280,000. 

Since June 11, 1878, Congress has appropriated annually fifty per 
cent of the approved estimates for expenditures of the District, the 
remaining fifty per cent being raised by taxation on the property. 

The relations between the people of the District and Congress have 
been strengthened and unified from year to year. We are no longer 
regarded as mendicants, and our treatment is liberal and in keeping 
with the progress and dignity of the capital of a great republic. 




At the Capita! 



85 



From a wretched beginning Washington has grown to be the fairest 
and most attractive city in the land, and is recognized as one of the 
most beautiful in the world. We have upward of two hundred and 
fift}' miles of smooth asphalted streets, fringed on either side by the 
luxurious and welcome shade of overhanging trees. Great national 
parks environ the city. Under the provisions of a recent act of Con- 
gress the magnificent plan of Washington will be continued and our 
broad streets and avenues will soon touch the District line. Years ago 
the rim of Washington was knocked off by our rapidh^ increasing 
population; Boundary street has been wiped out; our limits are now 
the boundaries of the District. 

The broad waters of the Potomac flow 
on to the ocean kissing the silent, sacred 
shores of Mount Vernon. As all roads are 
said to have led to Rome, so do all ave- 
nues of culture lead to Washington. 

Our public and private schools are un- 
surpassed. Already we have become a 
great literary, art, and .scientific center. 
Universities representing different denomi- 
nations have been and are being founded, 
with such unusual advantages- as to attract 
the 5'outh from all .sections of our land. 
The capital, our climate, our city, our 
people, the advantages which result from 
the fostering care of the Government, such 
as the National Museum, collections of 
natural hi.story, a Government librarj^ 
models representing the inventive genius 
of a century, the Congress of the United 
States, the diplomatic representatives of 
the nations of the earth, all conspire to 
attract to us the cultured, the influential, 
the wealthy people of the world. 

It would be impossible to overestimate 
our future possibilities. Our growth and pro.sperity will be an evi- 
dence and a result of national progress and greatness. No people 
are more lo3'al, generous, and hospitable than ours; no city on the face 
of the earth more attractive. 

The District's .second century will be but an echo of national ad- 
vancement. We have already more than realized the fondest hopes 
of our founders; Washington is the ideal city of the world. 

The day ceremonies at the Capitol then closed with the singing 
of "America," the Centennial Chorus being accompanied by the 




86 



Capitol Centemiial Celebration 



Marine Band, and the ninltitnde joining in the singing with great 
enthusiasm. The \-olnme of sonnd from the voices of the thou- 
sands present was such as liad never been heard before on any 
similar occasion. 

NIGHT CONCERT 

The night of September i8, 1893, was dark, but the arches of 
gas jets in front of the great white building threw a glare of light 
over the grand stands, gleaming upon the scarlet uniforms of the 
Marine Band and over the Centennial Chorus, which occupied 
the south stand. 

At 6 o'clock the Centennial Chimes of thirteen bells rang out 
clearly and distinctly the evening programme heretofore given. 
During the pealing of the chimes the crowd had begun to col- 
lect at the east front of the Capitol, and when 8 o'clock arrived, 
the hour for the opening of the grand out-of-door night concert, 
the stands were filled to their utmost capacity, while, in the lan- 
guage of the newspapers of the day — 

The whole of the open space before the east front of the Capitol 
was filled with a closely packed mass of humanity that extended out 

over the grass plots back of 



the Greenough statue and 
north and south past the 
broad steps of the House 
and Senate wings. A sight 
\ of the great crowd from the 
V\ lower gallery of the dome 
conveyed some idea of what 
is meant by "a sea of 
heads. ' ' Two-thirds of the 
way across the plaza one 
could have walked on the 
heads of the crowd with no 
danger of falling through 
a chance opening. Then 
came a great semicircle of closely packed carriages, and beyond that 
again, swarming over the grass plots, packed in tiers over the great 
ornamental urns, on the coping wall, and into East Capitol street, 
stretched the crowd. 

It was .shortly after 8 o'clock when the first strains of Professor 
Fanciulli'vS grand march, "The National Capitol Centennial," 




At the Capitol 



87 



rendered with exquisite accuracy, floated upon the still night. 
The great building, acting as a giant sounding-board, gave back 
the echoes, throwing the sound far out across the open space. 

The Centennial Chorus, who were present to the full number 
of fifteen hundred, then sang "The Heavens Are Telling." The 
chorus was in fine voice and sang well together under the magnetic 
leadership of Professor Cloward, the clear notes of the sopranos 




being distinctly heard by persons on the upper tier of the dome of 
the Capitol, nearly three hundred feet distant. The vast audience 
appreciated the grand music, and as the last notes of the chorus 
died away, broke out in prolonged cheers. 

The Marine Band then rendered the overture from "Semira- 
mide," and were followed by the Centennial Chorus in "Home, 



88 Capitol C 'cntciuiial Cclebratioii 

Sweet Home," accompanied by the Marine r,and. Then it was 
that the enthnsiasm of the crowd was made manifest by cheer on 
cheer, which continned as the IMarine Band pLayed Fanciulli'S 
merry descriptive music, "A Trip to Manhattan Beach." 

The Centennial Chorus, accompanied by the Marine Band, and 
at times by the audience, then sang "Hail Columbia," the enthu- 
siastic multitude insisting upon an encore, and being rewarded by 
the Marine Band with "Dixie," which was welcomed with alter- 
nate cheers and yells of delight. 

The Marine Band then played OrTh's "In the Clock Store," at 
the conclusion of which there was a mighty shout for "Hanford! 
Hanford!" As the actor, Mr. Charles B. Hanford, appeared 
on the projecting pier to the south of the main steps the applause 
was deafening. Waving his hand to command silence, in a clear, 
deep voice, thrilling with emotion, Mr. Hanford began to recite 
"The Star-Spangled Banner." Never had he recited to such a 
vast multitude, and never had he voiced or acted the stirring song 
so well. Cheers answered the closing lines of each verse, and at 
the close of the poem, as he raised aloft and waved to and fro a 
silken flag — the Star-Spangled Banner — the cheering became a 
deafening roar. Then the leader of the chorus waved his baton 
and the entire chorus and the thousands present in the crowd 
joined in singing the national air, while Mr. Hanford stood far 
above the heads of the mass, waving time with the silken flag. 
The demonstration of popular enthusiasm was mighty — "the voice 
of the American people. ' ' 

The concert closed with "A Trip to Mars," one of Fanciulu's 
sprightly and entertaining compositions, which the Marine Band 
rendered with fine effect. 



The Joint Committee 




o 



The Joint Committee 

In pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress, the following 
Senators, Representatives, and citizens were appointed to serve on 
the Joint Committee, namely: 

By the Senate: 

Daniei. W. Voorhees. vStephen M. White. 

John Sherman. Wii^liam E. Chandi^er. 

Matt W. Ransom. Watson C. Squire. 

John Martin. 

By the House: 

WiIvUam D. Bynum. John De Witt Warner. 

John C. Black. George W. Houk. 

David B. Henderson. Charles O'Neill. 

William Cogswell. 

By the Citizens' Committee: 

Lawrence Gardner. H. L. Biscoe. 

Duncan S. Walker. B. H. Warner. 

E. B. Hay. a. R. Spofford. 

M. I. Weller. J. M. Toner. 

C. C. Glover. John Joy Edson. 

S. W. Woodward. Beriah Wilkins. 

John W. Ross. Marshall W. Wines. 

The committee met in the rooms of the Senate Committee on 
Finance at lo a. m., August 23, 1893, and, a quorum being pres- 
ent, organized with Hon. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees, United 
States Senate, as Chairman, and General Duncan S. Walker as 
Secretary. 

After the reading of the joint resolution creating the commit- 
tee. Chairman VooRHEES called upon the Chairman of the Citi- 
zens' Committee for a statement of what had been done by the 
Citizens' Committee in preparing for the celebration, and what 
was proposed to be done to carr)- into effect the joint resolution 
of Congress. 

91 



92 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



Chairman Gardner snbinitted a written report, as follows: 

At the request of the Citizens' Committee, the following report has 
been prepared for the information of the committee appointed from 
the Senate and House of Representatives, explaining the origin of the 
movement, what has been done, and what yet remains undone. 

Being requested by numerous citizens, the District Commissioners 
issued a call through the dail}^ papers, and a meeting was held accord- 
ingly at Willard's Hotel on June 7, at which meeting the Hon. John 
W. Ross, President of the Board of Commissioners of the Di.strict of 
Cohnnbia, presided. It was determined then to have an appropri- 
ate celebration, and Chairman Ross was delegated by the meeting to 
appoint a committee of fifty to conduct the affair. Mr. Ross appointed 
a committee which subsequently met at Willard's Hall and selected its 
officers, and it further empowered the Chairman to appoint such com- 
mittees as were necessary to carry the 
celebration to a success. The committees 
were all appointed and their duties defined. 
It is unnecessary to state the details worked 
out b}^ each committee. The result of the 
work done by and approved by the Gen- 
eral Committee is as follows: 

It might be well to state here that at 
the time the Citizens' Committee was ap- 
pointed, and after it had completed the 
many arrangements for a great part of 
^U^ its programme, it was not anticipated that 
r the Congress of the United States would 
be in session, and authority was procured 
from the Honorable the President of the 
Senate (there being no Speaker of the 
House of Representatives), under the act 
of Congress approved July i, 1882, for the 
suspension of the prohibition, of the use 
of the grounds, etc., so as to enable the celebration to be conducted 
as proposed. As soon as Congress met the matter was brought to its 
attention by the Citizens' Committee, and the Joint Connnittee was 
appointed at its request. 

Under these circumstances we trust that it may not be regarded as 
presumptuous on our part to have already almost completed the arrange- 
ments, and that what has been done will meet with your approval. 

A Committee on Ceremonies at the Capitol, under the direction of 
Mr. B. H. Warner, have in part completed their programme. The 
portion that is absolutely concluded is as follows: 

Prayer by Right Rev. William Parkt, Bishop of Maryland; iutro- 







The Join t Com in it tee 



93 



ditction of the President; address by the President of the United States, 
introducing the orator, Mr. William Wirt Henry, of Richmond, Va.; 
and the following portion of the programme is respectfully suggested 
for action and approval: An address on behalf of the United States 
Senate, by its President; an address on behalf of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, by its Speaker; an address by a member of the Supreme 
Court, Chief Justice Fuller; an address for the District of Colum- 
bia, by one of the Commissioners of the District. 

In presenting this programme the committee found it necessary to 
arrange for music, and their music committee has undertaken the task 
of securing and drilling one of the largest clioru.ses ever brought 
together in the District of Columbia, consisting of 
fifteen hundred trained adult voices. At proper 
places during the programme the chorus will 
render patriotic music, concluding with a :J=Sr 



grand Te Deum. The committee has 
kindly had placed at its disposal a 
fine chime of thirteen bells, which 
will be rung at stated interv^als "-'^^ 
during the day and in 
conjunction with the 
chorus. The committee 
has also secured the serv- 
ices of the United States 
Marine Band, which, at 
the cost of the commit- 
tee, has arranged to in- 
crease its numbers. In 
preparing for the accom- 
modation of this large 
number of musicians the _ 
committee has entered '=^__£^ 
into a contract for the '' / '^ 

building of a stand at the side of the center steps at the east front of 
the Capitol that will accommodate twelve to thirteen hundred. They 
also arranged for a stand directly in front of the steps, for the accom- 
modation of the President, speakers, and invited guests, perhaps to the 
number of about two hundred, which leaves the steps back of that 
stand yet free, to be used for other invited guests. If the Senate and 
House of Representatives desire to be present, it will be necessary 
to erect another stand on the opposite side of the center steps for 
their accommodation. To decorate the stands the committee would 
request that permission be secured from Congress for the War and 
Na^^y Departments to loan such flags and decorations as they may 
have. 




94 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

It is proposed further that the event be celebrated by a parade, to 
march over the same route traveled b>- the procession in 1793. From 
such old records as we have been able to find, we learn that the pro- 
cession assembled at the President's Square and marched thence to 
the Capitol grounds. An advertisement was published in the daily 
papers of the city inviting all military and civic organizations and 
associations in the District of Columbia and neighboring cities to partici- 
pate in the parade and be present at the ceremonies. An additional 
written invitation was sent to such civic and military organizations 
whose addresses we could secure. In nearly all instances the invita- 
tions have been responded to, expressing a desire to participate in the 
parade, and only in one or two cases have we received declinations. 

General Albert Ordway, commanding the District mihtia, has 
been selected by the committee as Grand Marshal. He is now hard at 
work with the Connnittee on Parade, arranging all the details. 

Specially engraved invitations to the number of one thousand have 
been prepared. These invitations are to be sent to such prominent 
citizens of the United States as the committee may desire to invite, 
and also to the Diplomatic Corps. The design for the invitation is 
very elaborate, and tells the story of the building of the Capitol, begin- 
ning with a picture of President WAvShington laying the corner stone 
September 18, 1793; the second picture representing the old building 
completed, and the third representing the building as at present, 1893. 
Inclosed in the invitation are four pages, two pages to be devoted to 
the programme, one page containing the names of the Joint Committee, 
and the fourth page other committees. 

The committee have also published a small pamphlet giving a history 
of the Capitol from its foundation up to the present time; it also con- 
tains a list of the committees appointed to date. We have only issued 
one thousand copies of the book, and the other two thousand are ready 
to be issued as soon as the programme is complete, so that the pamphlet 
will then contain the programme and any new committees, and such 
other information as will add to its historic value. 

It is customary in celebrations of this kind to furnish the committee 
with ribbon badges, but the General Committee decided to have a medal 
struck commemorative of the occasion, designs for which were sub- 
mitted and approved by the General Committee, and a contract for five 
hundred has been entered into, the medals to be paid for by the indi- 
vidual members of the committee. Facsimiles of the designs will be 
found on the front and back pages of the pamphlet. 

It was first contemplated by the General Committee to ha\-e an even- 
ing entertainment at the Capitol, consisting of a reception in the 
Rotunda; but Congress being in session it was deemed advisable to 
abandon that portion of the programme. 



TJic Join t Com ;// it tec 



95 



After consultation with Architect Clark, who, I may say here, has 
been of great service to this committee, his suggestions being ahvaj'S 
well timed, it was proposed to have an illumination of the Capitol 
building with electric lights; but, after correspondence, our committee 
found that it would be impossible to go into a matter of that kind 
in an appropriate way with the funds in hand. So at present all that 
is contemplated is an illumination of the dome, there being sufficient 
electric power at the Capitol to furnish us with all the current neces- 
sary. It was also proposed to use the grand festival chorus for a 
concert in the Capitol grounds on the evening of the i8th of Sep- 
tember, having the grounds illuminated by gas and an aerial display 
of fireworks, the firing to take place from the grounds of the new 
Library building; but 
as the committee has 
acted from the be- 
ginning on the prin- 
ciple of making no 
contracts except 
when the money was 
in hand, these matters 
are held in abeyance. 
We hope, however, 
to have an even- 
ing concert and an 
illumination of the 
grounds. 

The additional legislation that this committee will require will be, 
first, a joint resolution granting us the use of the flags and decora- 
tions of the War and Navy Departments; second, a resolution making 
the i8th of September, 1893, a holiday for the District of Columbia. 

The report of the Chairman of the Citizens' Committee was 
received and approved and the execution of the same placed in 
the hands of the Citizens' Committee. 

It was also ordered that the Congress be requested to make the 
i8th day of September, 1893, a legal holiday in the District of 
Columbia, and also authorize the Secretary of War and the Sec- 
retary of the Navy to deliver to the Architect of the Capitol, for 
decoration purposes, certain ensigns, flags, and signal numbers. 

Chairman Gardner, of the Citizens' Committee, announced that 
his committee had raised by voluntary subscriptions the funds 
necessary for defraying all the expenses of the celebration. 




96 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



The Joint Coininittee met in the rooms of the Finance Com- 
mittee of the Senate September ii, at lo a. m. ; Senator Daniel W. 
VooRHEES, Chairman, and General Duncan S. Walker, Secretary. 

Mr. Gardner, Chairman of the Citizens' Committee, made 
the following report : 

Acting under the instructions of the Joint Committee of Congress, 
a special stand capable of acconnnodating one thousand, with the neces- 
sary seats, extending from the central steps in a northern direction, has 
been set apart for the exclusive use of the House and Senate. In 
this connection I beg to suggest that, in accordance with custom, 
the stand be turned over when completed to the Sergeant-at-Arms 
of the Senate, who shall have charge of the same and of the issuing 

of tickets thereto. 

Under the instruction 
of the Joint Committee, of 
the one thousand souvenir 
invitations printed, nine 
hundred and four have 
been issued to the per- 
sons designated by your 
Joint Committee, leaving 
ninety-six only at the 
disposal of the General 
Committee. A list of the 
distribution is herewith 
submitted. 

A grand stand will be 
erected in front of the 
central portion of the east 
front to accommodate the President of the United States, the speakers 
participating in the ceremonies, the Judiciary, the Diplomatic Corps, 
and other guests invited under direction of your Joint Committee. 

Another stand, extending south from the central portion of the build- 
ing, is in course of construction to accommodate the band and the grand 
chorus of fifteen hundred. In relation to the approaches to the build- 
ing on the 1 8th of September, some arrangement will have to be made to 
keep the central steps clear, and I suggest that that be left as a matter 
of accommodation between the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and the 
Chairman of the General Committee. 

As instructed, letters have been drawn up addressed respectively to 
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, inviting their 
respective bodies to be present, copies of which are submitted herewith. 
I also beg to suggest that, as is usual under such circumstances, an 




Tlie Joint Committee 97 

order be passed b}- each House arranging for their participation in the 
ceremonies. 

On the suggestion of Chairman Voorhees, it was agreed that 
motions be made in the Senate and House providing that their 
respective bodies take a recess at 2 p. m. on the i8th of Septem- 
ber and attend the celebration, and Mr. Voorhees requested Sen- 
ator Sherman to make the motion in the Senate and Mr. COGS- 
WELL to make the motion in the House of Representatives. 

At the suggestion of Senator VooRHEES, all details relating to 
the handling of the crowds at the Capitol on the day of the cele- 
bration were delegated to the Sergeants-at-Arms of the Senate 
and House and the Architect of the Capitol. 

It was also ordered that the stands for the Senate and House 
be turned over to the Sergeants-at-Arms of the respective bodies. 
H. Mis. 211 7 



Congressional Action 



99 




o 



Congressional Action 



AUTHORIZING THE CELEBRATION 

In the House of Representatives, August ii, 1893, the following 
action was taken: 

Mr. W. D. Bynu:m, of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from 
Mar^'land [Mr. Raynrr] yields to me for a minute to ask unani- 
mous consent for the consideration of a resolution. I will ask to 
have it read. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Indiana, with the con.sent of 
the gentleman from Maryland, desires unanimous consent for the 
consideration of a joint resolution relating to the exercises commem- 
orative of the hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone 
of the Capitol. The Clerk will read the joint resolution, after which 
the Chair will ask if there be objection. 

The Clerk read the joint resolution. 

Mr. Bynum. Mr. Speaker, I simply desire to sa>' to the House that 
this resolution entails no expense on the part of the Government. 
The funds have been raised b}- private citizens, and the}- simply desire 
the permission and cooperation of the Government. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the present consideration of 
the resolution? [After a pause.] The Chair hears none. 

The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third read- 
ing; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time, and 
passed. 

In the Senate, August 14, 1893, the subject was considered, as 
follows: 

A message from the House of Representatives, b}' Mr. T. O. TowLES, 
its Chief Clerk, announced that the House had passed a joint resolu- 
tion ( H. Res. 2) providing for the appropriate commemoration of the 
laying of the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States, Sep- 
tember 18, 1793, in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate. 

Mr. VOORHEES. I venture to ask that the Senate consider the joint 
resolution, and that it be put upon its passage now. For that purpose 
let it be read. I will merely state that it has been carefully consid- 
ered and unanimously passed by the other House. 



I02 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

By unanimous consent, the joint resolution was read twice, and 
considered as in Committee of the Whole. 

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, 
ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

The following is the joint resolution as passed by both Houses, 

it having received Executive approval August 17, 1893: 

Joint resolution provitling for the appropriate commemoration of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States, 
September iS, 1793. 

Whereas the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner 
stone of the United States Capitol by President George Wa.shington, 
September 18, 1793, is an occasion of national interest becoming the 
cognizance of Congress; and 

Whereas a committee of citizens of the United States, of which 
L/AWRENCE Gardner, of the District of Columbia, has been elected 
Chairman, have been appointed to make suitable and appropriate 
arrangements to duly commemorate the important event, and for the 
maintenance of order and decorum in the proceedings, and for guarding 
the Capitol and its grounds from injury: Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of tlie United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the use of the Capitol 
Grounds for the ceremonies attending the one hitndredth anniversary of 
the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol for and during the i8th 
of September, 1893, including processions, literary and musical exer- 
cises, and the suitable decoration of the grounds, the Capitol building 
and its approaches, shall be permitted, under such regulations as may 
be prescribed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, to insure the safety of the building and the 
grounds from injury. 

That a joint committee of fourteen, to consist of seven Senators, to 
be appointed by the President of the Senate, and seven Representatives, 
to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, be, 
and is hereby, constituted to take order in the matter "of arranging 
for the ceremonies at the Capitol, to act with a like committee in num- 
ber to be selected by the said Citizens' Committee. 

APPOINTMENT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE 

In the Senate, August 24, 1893, ^^^^ Joint Committee on the 
part of the Senate was appointed, as shown by the following 
extract from the proceedings: 

The Vice-President. Under the joint resolution providing for the 
appropriate commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the 



Congressional Action 103 

laying of the corner stone of the Capitol of the United vStates, Sep- 
tember 18, 1793, the Chair appoints as the committee on the part of 
the Senate the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Voorhees), the Senator 
from Ohio (Mr. Sherman), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Ransom), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Chandler), the 
Senator from California (Mr. White), the Senator from Washington 
(Mr. Souire), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Martin). 

In the House of Representatives, August 25, 1893, ^^^ follow- 
ing action was taken: 

The Speaker laid before the House a message from the Senate 
announcing the appointment by the Vice-President of a committee on 
the part of the Senate, consisting of Senators Voorhees, Sherman, 
Ransom, Chandler, White of California, Squire, and Martin, un- 
der the joint resolution providing for the appropriate commemoration 
of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of 
the Capitol of the United States, September 18, 1793; which was laid 
on the table. 

The Speaker announced the appointment of a like committee on 
the part of the House, in compliance with the joint resolution, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Bynum, Warner, Black of Illinois, Houk of Ohio, 
Henderson of Iowa, O'Neill of Pennsylvania, and Cogswell. 



MAKING THE DAY A HOUDAY, GRANTING USE OF 
I FLAGS, ETC. 

In the House of Representatives, September 3, 1893, fi^rther 
action was taken, as follows: 

Mr. Bynum. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the intro- 
duction of a couple of resolutions and their present consideration. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will report the resolution, after 
which the Chair will ask if there be objection to its consideration. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

A joint resolution (H. Res. 6) to make the iSth A&y of September, 1S93, a holidaj- within the 

District of Cohimbia. 

Be it resolved, etc.. That there be added to the days by law declared to be 
holidays within the District of Cohiinbia the i8th day of September, 1893, the 
same being the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of 
the Capitol of the United States. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Is there objection to the present con- 
sideration of the resolution? [After a pau.se.] The Chair hears none. 



I04 Capitol Centennial CelebratioJi 

The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading; 
and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time, and 
passed. 

Mr. Bynum. I also ask for the consideration of the other resolution. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will report the resolution, after 
which the Chair will ask if there be objection to its consideration. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

A joint resolution (H. Res. 7) to permit the use of certain ensigns, flags, and signal numbers 
to decorate the Capitol and its approaches, 1893. 

Be it resolved, etc., That the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy 
be, and they are hereby, authorized to deliver to the Architect of the Capitol, 
for the purpose of decorating the Capitol, its approaches, and grand stands to be 
erected in the Capitol grounds on the occasion of the centennial celebration of 
the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, such of the United States ensigns, 
flags (except battle flags), signal numbers, and other flags as may be spared, the 
same to be so delivered to said Architect not prior to the loth day of September, 
and to be returned by him by the 30th day of September, 1893. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Is there objection to the present con- 
sideration of this resolution ? [After a pause ] The Chair hears none. 

The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading; 
and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time, and passed. 

On motion of Mr. Bynum, a motion to reconsider the several votes by 
which the joint resolutions were passed was laid on the table. 

These subjects were considered in the Senate September 4, 1893, 
as follows: 

Mr. VooRHEES. I ask that the joint resolutions which have just 
come from the House of Representatives be laid before the Senate 
and put on their passage. I will state that the first is a joint resolution 
passed by the other House, making the i8th of September a holiday 
in the District of Columbia. It is the centennial of the laying of the 
corner stone of the Capitol. The other joint resolution authorizes 
the use of certain flags and ensigns by the Architect of the Capitol 
on that day. I should be very glad to have the Senate concur with 
the action of the House of Representatives and let the matter go 
along. There being no objection, the joint resolution (H. Res. 6) to 
make the i8th day of September, 1893, a holiday within the District 
of Columbia was read twice and considered as in Committee of the 
Whole. 

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, 
ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 

The joint resolution (H. Res. 7) to permit the use of certain ensigns, 
flags, and signal numbers to decorate the Capitol and its approaches. 



Congressional Action 105 

September 18, 1893, was read twice and considered as in Committee 
of the Whole. 

The joint resokition was reported to the Senate without amendment, 
ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 



RESOLUTIONS TO ATTEND 

In the Senate, September 11, 1893: 

The Vice-President laid before die vSenate the following letter; 
which was read: 

Washington, D. C, September 11, /Sgj. 
Sir: The General Committee on the Centennial Celebration of the Laying of 
the Corner Stone of the Capitol has set apart, under the direction of the Joint 
Committee appointed under the joint resolution of Congress approved August 17, 
1893, a special stand with one thousand seats for the exclusive use of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, September iS, 1S93. 

It is the desire of the committee that, following the established precedent of 
such occasions, the Senate attend the ceremonies as an organized body; and in 
behalf of the committee I beg to request you to extend this invitation to the 
United States Senate, and that that honorable body may make such order thereon 
as may be most appropriate. 

Very respectfully, L. Gardner, 

Chaij-Jiian General Coiiunittee. 
Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, 

Vice-President United States, President of t/ie Senate. 

Mr. Sherman, from the Joint Select Committee appointed under the 
joint resolution providing for the appropriate commemoration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol 
of the United States, September 18, 1793, reported the following reso- 
lution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Senate will attend the ceremonies of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, September iS, 1893, 
at 2 o'clock p. m. 

That a recess be taken at ten minutes before 2 o'clock p. m. of that day, and 
the Senate, accompanied by its officers, shall proceed to the place assigned, at the 
east front of the Capitol. 

That the Sergeant-at-Arms ot the Senate is directed to make the necessary 
arrangements to carry out this order. 

In the House of Representatives, September 12, 1893: 

The Speaker. The Chair lays before the House the following com- 
mimication, which the Clerk will report: 

Washington, D. C, September 11, 1893. 
Sir: The General Committee on the Centennial Celebration of the Laying of 
the Corner Stone of the Capitol has set apart, under the direction of the Joint 



io6 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

Committee appointed under the joint resolution of Congress approved August 17, 
1893, a special stand with one thousand seats for the exclusive use of the vSenate 
and House of Representatives, September 18, 1893. 

It is the desire of the committee that, following the established precedent of 
such occasions, the House of Representatives attend the ceremonies as an organ- 
ized body; and in behalf of the committee I beg to request you to extend this 
invitation to the House of Representatives, and that that honorable body may 
make such order thereon as may be most appropriate. 

Very respectfully, L. Gardnkr, 

Chairman General Committee. 
Hon. Chari.es F. Crisp, 

Speaker House of Representatives, United States. 

Mr. Cogswell. I offer the resolution which I .send to the Clerk's 
de.sk, and ask for its immediate consideration. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Hou.se will attend the ceremonies of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, vSeptember 18, 1893, 
at 2 o'clock p. m. 

That a recess be taken at ten minutes before 2 o'clock of that day, and the 
House, accompanied by its officers, shall proceed to the place assigned, at the east 
front of the Capitol. That the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House is directed to make 
the necessary arrangements to carry out this order. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the immediate consideration of 
this resolution? 

There was no objection. 

The resolution was a^eed to. 



ATTENDANCE AT THE CELEBRATION 

In the Senate, September 18, 1893: 

The V1CE-PRE.SIDENT. The Chair will .state to the Senator from 
Oregon that the Chair is compelled, under the resolution of the Senate, 
to announce that, the hour of ten minutes to 2 having arrived, it 
becomes the duty of the Chair to lay before the Senate the resolution 
adopted by the Senate on the nth instant, which will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate will attend the ceremonies of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, September 18, 1893, 
at 2 o'clock p. m. 

That a recess be taken at ten minutes before 2 o'clock p. m. of that day, and 
the Senate, accompanied by its officers, shall proceed to the place assigned, at the 
east front of the Capitol. 

That the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate is directed to make the necessary 
arrangements to carry out this order. 

The Vice-President. The Sergeant-at-Arms will execute the order 
of the Senate. 



Congressional Adioii 



107 



The Senate, headed by the Vice-President and the Secretary, and 
preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms, thereupon proceeded to the east 
front of the Capitol to participate in the ceremonies commemorative 
of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of 
the Capitol of the United States. 

The Senate returned to its Chamber at 5 o'clock and 13 minutes 
p. ni. 

In the House of Representatives, September 18, 1893: 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the order adopted by the 
House. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House will attend the ceremonies of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the laying of the corner 
stone of the Capitol, vSepteniber iS, 1893, 
at 2 o'clock p. ni. 

That a recess be taken at ten minutes 
before 2 o'clock of that day, and the 
House, accompanied by its officers, shall 
proceed to the place assigned, at the east 
front of the Capitol. That the Sergeant- 
at-Arms of the House is directed to make 
the necessary arrangements to carry out 
this order. 

The Speaker. The Chair would 
call the attention of the House 
to the fact that there is no provi- 
sion made in this order as to the 
duration of the recess or the ad- 
journment of the House. There- 
fore, the Chair would suggest that 
some motion be made respecting; 
the return to the Hall and the ad- 
journment of the House immediately 
thereafter. 

Mr. CaTChings. I move that 
when the ceremonies have been concluded the House reassemble. I 
think that motion would cover the idea. 

Mr. Reed. It is understood that there is to be an adjournment at 
once on return of the House. 

Mr. IviviNGSTON. Why not adjourn now? 

The Speaker. The only reason why the House can not now ad- 
journ is that the House has agreed to attend this ceremonj^ as a 
body, and both the House and Senate have agreed to take a recess. 
However, it can be the understanding, and without objection it will 
be the understanding, that immediately upon the conclusion of the 




io8 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

ceremonies the House will, or such members as return, reassemble, 
when an adjournment will be had until to-morrow. Without ol:)jec- 
tion that will be the understanding and the order. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 

The vSpeaker. The House will, in accordance with the order, form 
in line and proceed to the place of the ceremonies. The officers will 
accompany the House, and the pages will form in the rear of the 
members. 

Accordingly (at i o'clock and 50 minutes), the House, headed by 
the Speaker and accompanied by its officers, proceeded to the platform 
prepared for their accommodation in front of the east portico. 

The House reassembled at 5 o'clock and 10 minutes. 

THE TABLET 

In the Senate, April 23, 1894: 

The Vice-President laid before the Senate the following commu- 
nication; which was read: 

Washington, D. C, April 21, 18^4. 
Dear Sir: The General Committee on the Centennial of the Capitol has donated 
a bronze tablet, estimated to cost about I900, to be placed upon the exterior south- 
east wall of the north wing of the original Capitol building, to conmiemorate the 
laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, September 18, 1793, by President GEORGE 
Washington. 

As legislation will be necessary to carry out the purpose of the General Com- 
mittee, I have the honor to request that the subject may be brought to the 
attention of Congress, only suggesting that the matter of the inscription upon 
the tablet be left to the discretion of the Joint Committee appointed under the 
joint resolution of Congress approved August 17, 1S93, and that the selection of 
the precise locality for the insertion of the tablet, as well as the work connected 
with such insertion, be placed under the direction of the Architect of the Capitol. 
Very respectfulh, your most obedient servant, 

Iv. Gardner, 
Chairman General Coininillee. 
Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, 

President United States Senate. 

Mr. VooRHEES. In this connection I ask unanimous consent to 
introduce and have considered a joint resolution. 

The Vice-President. The joint resolution will be read the first 
time by its title and the second time at length, if there be no 
objection. 

The joint resolution (S. R. 77) providing for the placing of a tablet 
upon the Capitol to commemorate the laying of the corner stone of 
the building, September 18, 1793, was read the first time by its title 
and the second time at length, as follows: 

Whereas the General Conmiittee of citizens of the United States, of which 
Lawrence Gardner is Chairman, have donated to the United States a bronze 



Congressional Action 109 

tablet to be placed upon the Capitol to coinniemorate the laying of the corner 
stone of the building, September i8, 1793: Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Repi'esentatives of the United States 
of America in Congress asscinl)led. That the United States accept the said tablet, 
and that the Architect of the Capitol be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed 
to cause the same, when approved by the Joint Committee appointed under joint 
resolution of Congress of August 17, 1893, to be placed in or upon the southeast 
wall of the north wing of the original Capitol building, upon such suitable place 
as he, the said Architect, may select, at such distance above the corner stone 
laid by GEORGE Washington, September 18, 1793, as in the judgment of said 
Architect may be best suited to display the same without detracting from the 
architectural effect of the building. 

Mr. VoORHEEvS. It may not be improper to say that the committee 
having in charge the centennial celebration of the laying of the corner 
stone of the Capitol have .so well managed their affairs as to have a 
moderate surplus fund left with which to provide this bronze tablet. 
The tablet is to be placed at a point to indicate the precise spot where 
the original corner stone was laid. That locality has been ascertained, 
and this is a movement to mark the spot for all time to come. I think 
it a charming and a most excellent thing to do, and the committee which 
have had charge of this matter are deserving of great credit. They 
have asked nothing of Congress, they have been at no expense to the 
Government, and they have the money to spare to make this provision. 
I thought it best to explain the matter. I ask for the present con- 
sideration of the joint resolution. 

Mr. Gray. While the Senator is on his feet in regard to this very 
appropriate act that has been performed, let me ask him whether the 
inscription on the tablet is to contain the name of any private person 
or of the donors of the tablet? 

Mr. VooRHEES. I think not. 

Mr. Gray. It ought not to do so. 

Mr. VooRHEES. I think it does not, althottgh on that sitbject I am 
not at all advised. I should saj^ not, very decidedly. However, that 
can be easily controlled or managed. I do not think there is an}^ such 
purpose at all. It is a tablet to mark the precise locality of the original 
corner stone laid by George Washington September 18, 1793. 

Mr. Gray. The good taste of the gentlemen connected with this 
enterprise would suggest that no such thing should be done; but I 
think it otight to be assured. 

The Vice-President. Is there objection to the present consideration 
of the joint resolution? 

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 
proceeded to consider the joint resolution. 

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, 
ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and 
passed. 



no Capitol Centennial Celebration 

In the House of Representatives, April 24, 1894: 

The Speaker laid before the House the Senate resolution (vS. R. 78) 
providing for the placing of a tablet upon the Capitol to commemorate 
the laying of the corner stone of the building, September 18, 1793. 

Mr. Bynum. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the present 
consideration of the Senate resolution. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Indiana asks unanimous con- 
sent for the present consideration of the Senate joint resolution, which 
is before the House for reference. The Clerk will report it, after which 
the Chair will ask if there be objection. 

The resolution was read. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the request for the present 
consideration of the resolution? [After a pause.] The Chair hears 
none. 

The resolution was ordered to a third reading; and it was accord- 
ingly read the third time, and passed. 

On motion of Mr. Bynum, a motion to reconsider the vote by which 
the joint resolution was passed was laid on the table. 

PRINTING THE PROCEEDINGS 
In the Senate, October 31, 1893: 

Mr. V00RHEE.S, from the Committee on the Library, to whom the 
subject was referred, reported a bill (S. 1137) to provide for the print- 
ing of the report of the Joint Committee of Congress and proceedings 
at the centennial celebration of the laying of the corner stone of the 
Capitol; which was read twice by its title, and, on motion of Mr. 
VooRHEES, referred to the Committee on Printing. 

In the Senate, Januarj^ 16, 1894: 

Mr. Gorman, from the Committee on Printing, reported a joint 
resolution (S. R. 51) to provide for the printing of the report of the 
Joint Committee of Congress and proceedings at the centennial cele- 
bration of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol; and sub- 
mitted a report thereon. 

The joint resolution was read the first time by its title. 

Mr. Gorman. I ask for the present consideration of the joint reso- 
lution. 

By unanimous consent, the joint resolution was read the second time 
at length, and considered as in Committee of the Whole, as follows: 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled. That the report of the Joint Committee of Con- 
gress appointed under the joint resolution approved August 17, 1893, upon the 



Congressional Action 1 1 1 

ceremonials at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of 
the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States, together with the proceed- 
ings and public addresses on the commemoration of that event, be printed in a 
memorial volume, with such illustrations as ma}' be approved by the Joint Com- 
mittee on Printing, and that five thousand five hundred copies be printed, fifteen 
hundred for the use of the Senate, three thousand for the use of the House of 
Representatives, and one thousand copies for distribution by the Citizens' Com- 
mittee on the celebration; and the sum of $5,000, or so much thereof as maybe 
necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other- 
wise appropriated, to carry this joint resolution into effect. 

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, 
ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and 
passed. 

The following is the report (Senate No. 160, second session 
Fifty-third Congress) made by Mr. Gorman, from the Commit- 
tee on Printing: 

The Committee on Printing, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1137J 
' ' to provide for the printing of the report of the Joint Committee 
of Congress and proceedings at the centennial celebration of the 
laying of the corner stone of the Capitol," having considered the same, 
report it back with the recommendation that it do not pass, and that 
in lieu thereof the following substitute joint resolution do pass. [Reso- 
lution as passed follows. — Ed.] 

The provisions of the bill are all retained in the substitute joint 
resolution with the exception that the distribution of the proposed 
memorial volume to the House of Representatives is reduced from 
three thousand five hundred to three thousand. This reduction was 
found necessary in order to bring the cost of the work within the 
amount appropriated therefor, and the usual proportion of distribution 
between the Senate and House of Representatives is still maintained. 

The provisions of the bill having relation only to a specific occasion 
and not embracing any permanent provision of law, a joint resolution 
has been deemed by the committee the more appropriate method of 
proceeding. 

In the House of Representatives, March 10, 1894: 

Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I present a privileged 
report from the Committee on Printing. 
The report was read, as follows: 

The committee have considered Senate joint resolution No. 51, providing for 
the printing of the proceedings at the centennial celebration of the laying of the 
corner stone of the Capitol, and direct me to report the same with the recom- 
mendation that it do pass. The estimated cost of the same is about $4,800. 



112 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



The joint resolution was ordered to a third reading, and it was 
accordingly read the third time. 

The question being taken, on a division the joint resolution was 
passed — ayes 72, noes 14. 




The Capitol 



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The Capitol 



With Some Notice of Its Architects 
[By Edward Ci.ark.] 

The original portion of the Capitol is constnicted of sandstone 
from quarries at Aquia Creek, Virginia. Its dimensions are 352 
feet 4 inches by 229 feet in depth. 

The extensions were begun in 1851, and were occupied by 
Congress in 1859. The material used is white marble from quar- 
ries at Lee, Massachusetts; that in the columns from quarries 
at Cockeysville, Maryland. The extensions were completed in 
1861, the dome in 1863, and the terraces in 1891. The entire 
frontage of the building is 751 feet 4 inches, and its greatest 
depth 350 feet. Total cost, including terraces, $14,455,000. 

The duty of erecting the public buildings at the permanent 
seat of government was intrusted by Congress to President Wash- 
ington and three Commissioners to be selected by him. In 
1792 designs were solicited by this Commission and many plans 
were presented, but few were thought worthy of consideration. 
An award was made to Dr. William Thornton and to INIr. 
Stephen HallETTE for designs by them submitted, and although 
Dr. Thornton's plan was followed to some extent, he not being 
a trained architect, the work of constructing the building was 
intrusted to Stephen Hallette. 

Mr. Hallette came to the United States from France just 
previous to the Revolution, and established himself at Philadel- 
phia. In 1792 he became Architect of the Capitol, continuing as 
such until 1794. Upon his retirement the control of the building 
passed into the hands of James Hoban, who, as Surveyor of the 
Public Works, had been previously connected with the construction 
of the building. 

115 



it6 



Capitol Ccntcunial Cclchralion 










HOBAN was a native of Ireland, and had settled in Charleston, 
South Carolina, just after the Revolutionary war. His principal 
work was designing and constructing the President's Mansion. 
His connection with the Capitol continued for ten years, or until 
1802, during which period Georgr Hatfield, as architect, was 
also engaged upon the work, from 1795 to 1798. 

Hatfield was an Englishman by birth, educated as an archi- 
tect in London. He designed also the old State, War, and Navy 
Department buildings and the present City Hall. 

In 1803 Benjamin H. Latrobe was appointed by President 

Jefferson. He continued in the 
service nntil 181 7, with the excep- 
tion of the period of the last war 
with Great Britain. He restored 
the portions of the building de- 
stroyed during that war. 

Mr. Latrobe was born and edu- 
cated in his profession in England, 
coming to America in 1796. While 
living in Philadelphia he designed 
and constructed many public build- 
ings in that city. It is to his 
genius we owe the design and finish 
of the Senate Chamber, now oc- 
' cupied by the Supreme Court, the 
old Hall of Representatives, and 
the interior of the wings of the 



central building. Upon his resignation, in 1817, Charles Bull- 
finch, of Boston, Massachusetts, was appointed his successor. 

Mr. Bullfinch constructed the Rotunda, Library rooms, and 
central porticoes. His connection with the building ceased upon 
its completion, in 1830, and the Capitol was then placed in charge 
of the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds until 185 1, 
when the plans of Thomas U. Walter for the extension were 
adopted and he was appointed architect to construct the wings. 
The work was commenced by laying the corner stone of the 
south wing July 4, 185 1. The entire work was prosecuted with 




. >^^ . -T^ ^ i 'lit?*! 



The Capitol 117 

vigor. The Hall of Representatives, south wing, was occupied 
December 16, 1857, and the Senate Chamber, in the north wing, 
January 4, 1859. 

Mr. Walter was born in Philadelphia, and had designed manv 
of the principal structures in that city, among which is Girard 
College for Orphans. He resigned his charge in 1865, and was 
succeeded by the present Architect, Edward Clark, his pupil, 
who is a native of the same city. 

During Mr. Clark's term of service the porticoes of the wings 
were finished, the marble terraces and grand stairways constructed, 
and the Capitol grounds extended and remodeled, the latter 
under plans furnished by Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape 
architect. 

Among those who have been connected with the construction 
of the wings of the Capitol and the new dome, the important 
services of General M. C. Meigs should be noticed. As captain 
of Engineers, United States Army, he served for several years in 
charge of the engineering part of the work, and much is due to 
his skill in the construction of the dome and in planning and 
arranging the heating and ventilating apparatus of the wings. 

[Added by the Editor.] 

Mr. Edward Clark, the present Architect of the Capitol, was 
appointed in 1865, and is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsyhania. 
Both his father and brother were expert draftsmen and builders, 
the former also a teacher of architecture and drawing. Mr. Clark 
had an early apprenticeship in drafting and in building mechanics. 
He entered the office of Mr. Thomas U. Walter, then the prin- 
cipal architect in Philadelphia, and soon engaged in work upon 
competitive plans for the extension of the United States Capitol. 
Upon the acceptance of these plans and the appointment of Mr. 
Walter as Architect of the Capitol, Mr. Clark accompanied 
him to Washington as his assistant. In the summer of 1851 he 
was appointed assistant superintendent of work upon the Patent 
Office building, under Mr. Walter, and later served in the same 
capacity in connection with the construction of the extension of 
the General Post-Office building, under M. C. Meigs, captain 
United States Engineers. 



ii8 Capitol Cfutcunial Celebration 

During- this service Mr. Clark was called upon by the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, in 1859, to furnish plans for buildings in the 
Territories. In the Secretary's letter transmitting these plans he 
was pleased to speak of Edward Clark at that early day as 
"an experienced architect," In 1865 Mr. Clark succeeded Mr. 
Walter, by appointment from the President, as Architect of 
the United States Capitol. 

For thirt>' years the growth, development, and care of the 
Capitol and its surroundings have been his life. He has grown 
familiar with its every part, its ventilation, water, sewerage, light- 
ing, and heating apparatus, and its avenues, from subbasement 
to tholus. 

The works constructed under his direction will stand as endur- 
ing monuments to his ability as an architect and superintendent, 
being principalh- — in recapitulation — the completion of the dome, 
the many-columned porticoes and exterior finish of the Capitol, 
the construction of the marble terraces, with their grand stair- 
ways and approaches, the porticoes and improvements of the 
Patent Office and the Post-Office buildings, and man)- other public 
buildings. 



The First Corner Stone 



119 



The First Corner Stone 

Proceedings of September 18, 1798 

The following account of the ceremonies of laying the corner 
stone of the Capitol is copied from the book entitled "The Lodge 
of Washington: A History of the Alexandria Washington Lodge, 
No. 22, A. F. and A. M., of Alexandria, Va.," compiled from 
the original records of the Lodge, by Past Master F. L. Brockett, 
and published in 1876. The quotation credited to "the news- 
papers of that day" is substantially the report published in the 
Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette of September 25, 1793. 
After giving an account of the erection of the southeast corner 
stone of the District of Columbia, on the 15th of April, 1791, 
the history above named says: 

The next important event of this kind was the laying of the corner 
stone of the United States Capitol, at the cit}- of Washington, on the 
1 8th day of September, 1793. The Masonic ceremonies were conducted 
by His Excellency General Washington, President of the United 
States, a Past Master of this Lodge, which was present and holding 
the post of honor. Dr. Dick, elected Worshipful Master in 1789, still 
in office, invited Washington to act as Master on this occasion, in 
accordance with his own wishes and those of the public. The stone 
was deposited in the southeast corner of the building, instead of the 
northeast, as is now the custom. The inscription on the plate stated 
that Alexandria Lodge, No. 22, of Virginia, was present and partici- 
pated in the ceremonies. The apron and sash worn by Washington 
on this occasion were the handiwork of Mrs. General La FAY:eTTE, 
and are now the property of this Lodge. 

The following account of the ceremonies was published in the 
newspapers of that day: 

On Wednesday one of the grandest Masonic processions took place, 
for the purpose of laying the corner stone of the Capitol of the United 
States, which perhaps was ever exhibited on the like important occa- 
sion. About 10 o'clock Lodge No. 9 was visited by that congregation 

121 



122 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

so graceful to the craft, Lodge No. 22, of Virginia, with all their 
officers and regalia; and directly afterwards appeared on the southern 
bank of the Grand River Potomack one of the finest companies of \-ol- 
unteer artillery that has been lately seen, parading to receive the 
President of the United States, who shortly came in sight with his 
suite, to whom the artillery paid their military honors; and His Excel- 
lency and suite crossed the Potomack, and was received in Maryland 
by the officers and brethren of No. 22, Virginia, and No. 9, Maryland, 
whom the President headed, preceded by a band of music, the rear 
brought up Ijy the Alexandria Volunteer Artillery, with grand solem- 
nity of march, proceeded to the President's Square, in the city of 
Washington, where they were met and saluted by No. 15, of the city 
of Washington, in all their elegant badges and clothing, headed by 
Brother Joseph Clarke, Right Worshipful Grand Master pro tempore, 
and conducted to a large lodge, prepared for the purpose of their recep- 
tion. After a short space of time, by the vigilance of Brother Clot- 
WORTHY Stephenson, Grand Marshal pro tempore, the brotherhood 
and other bodies were disposed in a second order of procession, which 
took place amid a brilliant crowd of spectators of both sexes, according 
to the following arrangement, viz. : 

The Surveying Department of the city of Washington. 

Mayor and Corporation of Georgetown. 

Virginia Artillery. 

Commissioners of the city of Washington and their attendants. 

Stonecutters, mechanics. 

The Sword-l:)earers. 

Masons of the first degree. 

Bible, etc., on grand cushions. 

Deacons, with staffs of ofhce. 

Masons of the second degree. 

Stewards, with wands. 

Masons of the third degree. 

Wardens, with truncheons. 

Secretaries, with tools of office. 

Past Masters, with their regalia. 

Treasurers, with their jewels. 

Band of music. 

Lodge No. 22, of Virginia, disposed in their own order. 

Corn, wine, and oil. 

Grand Master pro tempore Brother GEORGE W.\Shington and Worshipful Master 

of No. 22, of Virginia. 
Grand Sword-bearer. 

The procession marched two abreast in the greatest .solemn dignity, 
with music playing, drums beating, colors flying, and .spectators rejoic- 
ing, from the President's Square to the Capitol, in the city of Wash- 
ington, where the Grand Master ordered a halt and directed each file 
in the procession to incline two steps, one to the right and one to the 
left, and face each other, which formed a hollow oblong square, through 



TJic First Corner Stone 



123 



which the Grand Sword-bearer led the van, followed b^- the Grand 
Master pro tempore on the left, the President of the United States in 
the center, and the Worshipful Master of No. 22, Virginia, on the 
right. All the other orders that composed the procession advanced in 
the reverse of their order of march from the President's Square to the 
southeast corner of the Capitol, and the artiller)^ filed off to a destined 
ground to display their maneuvers and discharge their cannon. The 
President of the United States, the Grand Master pro tempore, and 
the Worshipful Master of No. 22, taking their stand to the east of a 
large stone, and all the craft, forming a circle westward, stood a short 
time in solemn order. The artillery discharged a volley. The Grand 
Master delivered the Commissioners a large silver plate with an in- 
scription thereon, which the Commis- 
sioners ordered to be read, and was as 
follows: 



This southeast corner stone of the Capitol 
of the United States of America, in the citj' of 
Washington, was laid on the i8th day of Sep- 
tember, 1793, in the thirteenth year of American 
Independence, in the first year of the second 
term of the Presidency of George Washing- 
Ton, whose virtues in the civil administration 
of his country have been as conspicuous and 
beneficial as his military valor and prudence :\\) 
have been useful in establishing her liberties, 
and in the year of Masonry 5793, by the Presi- 
dent of the United States, in concert with the 
Grand Lodge of Maryland, several lodges under 
its jurisdiction, and Lodge No. 22, from Alex- 
andria, Va. ; Thomas Johnson, David Steuart, 
and DanieIv Carroi.1., Commissioners; Joseph 
Clark, Right Worshipful Grand Master pro 
tempore; James Hob an and Stephen Hae- 
EETTE, architects; Colein Wieeiamson, master 
mason. 

The artillery discharged a volley. The 
plate was then delivered to the President, who, attended by the 
Grand Master pro tempore and three Most Worshipful Masters, 
descended to the cavazion trench and deposited the plate and laid it 
on the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States of America, 
on which were deposited corn, wine, and oil, when the whole congre- 
gation joined in reverential prayer, which was succeeded by Masonic 
chanting honors and a volley from the artillery. 

The President of the United States and his attendant brethren 
ascended from the cavazion to the east of the corner stone, and there 
the Grand Master pro tempore, elevated on a triple rostrum, dehv- 
ered an oration fitting the occasion, which was received with brotherly 




124 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



love and commendation. At inter\'als during the deliver}- of the ora- 
tion several volleys were discharged b}^ the artillery. The ceremony 
ended in prayer, Masonic chanting honors, and a fifteen volley from 
the artillery. 

The whole compan}^ retired to an extensive booth, where an ox of 
500 pounds' weight was barbecued, of which the company generally 
partook, with every abundance of other recreation. The festival con- 
cluded with fifteen successive volleys from the artillery, whose military 
discipline and maneuvers merit every commendation. Before dark the 
whole company departed with joj-ful hopes of the production of their 
labor. 





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Extension Corner Stone 



125 



Extension Corner Stone 

The corner stone of the extension of the Capitol was laid by 
President Millard Fillmore on the 4th day of July, 185 1, 
Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, delivering the oration. 
The procession marched from the City Hall down Louisiana 
avenue to Seventh street, thence to Pennsylvania avenue, thence 
to the north gate of the Capitol, under the command of Rich- 
ard Wallach, Esq., Marshal of the District of Columbia. 

Following is the official programme for the procession and the 
ceremonies at the Capitol : 

THE PROGRAMME 

The Marshal of the District of Columbia, to whom has been assigned 
the duty of making the necessary arrangements for laying the corner 
stone of the extension of the Capitol, announces the following pro- 
gramme for the occasion: 

FIRST division 

J. P. MiDDLETON, Marshal. 

Marshal of the District of Columbia and aids. 

Military escort. 

Officers of the Army and Nav}-. 

Military officers of the several States and Territories. 

Officers and soldiers of the Revolution. 

Officers and soldiers of the war of 1812. 

SECOND DIVISION 

Dr. William B. Magruder, Marshal. 

Civic procession. 

Persons present at the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol in 1793. 

President of the LTnited States and orator of the day. 

Heads of Departments. 

Cabinet members of former Administrations. 

Committees of Public Buildings of the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Architect of the Capitol. 

Commissioner of Public Buildings. 

Heads of Bureaus. 

127 



128 Capitol Ccutenuial Celebration 

Judges of tlu' Supreme Court of the Uuited vStates. 

Judges of the Uuited States Courts. 

Judges of State Courts. 

Uiplouiatic Corps. 

Chaplaius of the Thirty-first Congress. 

The reverend clergy of the District. 

Members of the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Governors of States. 

Delegations from States and Territories. 

Washington Monument Society. 

Members of the vSmithsonian Institution. 

Members of National Institute. 

Ex-Mayors of the city of Washington. 

The corporate authorities of Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington. 

Members of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

THIRD DIVISION 

G. A. SCHWARZMAN, Marshal. 
The Masonic fraternity. 

FOURTH DIVISION 

Joseph Libbey, Marshal. 
The several temperance orders and societies. 

FIFTH DIVISION 

M. Thompson, Marshal. 

The Washington Benevolent Society. 

The German Benevolent Society. 

Literary associations, colleges, and schools of the District of Columbia. 

Citizens of the several States. 

Citizens of Washington. 

The niilitar}- will assemble on Four-and-a-half street, their right resting on D 
street, opposite the City Hall. 

The President of the United States and heads of Departments, members of the 
judiciary, members of the two Houses of Congress, foreign Ministers, the rev- 
erend clergy, and all officers in uniform and on foot are respectfully invited to 
assemble at the City Hall at lo o'clock a. m. 

The coqDorate authorities of Baltimore, Alexandria, and Georgetown, and such 
other corporations as may think proper to participate in the ceremonies of the 
day, will assemble at the City Hall at lo o'clock. 

The Masonic fraternity will form on Fifth street, with their right resting on D 
street. 

The different temperance societies will take position on E street, with the head 
of the column resting on Fifth street. 

The Washington Benevolent Society, the German Benevolent Society, the lit- 
erary societies, colleges, and schools will form on Sixth street, their right resting 
on E street. 

The citizens of the vStates not members of delegations will form on Louisiana 
avenue, opposite the City Hall. 

The procession will move from the City Hall at ii o'clock precisely, and all 
bodies intending to join in the procession are lequested to be at their respective 
positions at lo o'clock a. m. 



Extension Corner Stone 120 

ROUTE 

Down Louisiana avenue to Seventh street; down Seventh street to Pennsylva- 
nia avenue, to the north gate of the Capitol. 

No carriages will be admitted into the line of procession, and no carriages or 
horses will be permitted to enter any of the streets or avenues of the route of 
procession during its progress from the place of assemblage to the Capitol. 

The Capitol will be opened for the accommodation of ladies. 

ORDER OF CEREMONIES AT THE CAPITOL. 
J. Madison Cutts, Marshal. 

1. Prayer by the Chaplain of the Senate. 

2. Laying of the corner stone by the President of the United States 

3. Masonic ceremonies by the Most Worshipful Grand Master and the Grand 
Lodge of Free Masons of the District of Columbia. 

4. Address to the Masonic fraternity by the Grand Master. 

5. Address by the Secretary of State. 

6. Benediction by the Chaplain of the House of Representatives. Music 

At the conclusion of the ceremonies at the Capitol, a national salute will be 
fired from a battery at the Capitol, under command of Captain Buckingham 
and at the Navy-Yard, Arsenal, and National Monument. 

In the evening there will be a display of fireworks under the direction of 
Thomas B. Brown, pyrotechnist, on the Mall, immediately south of the Presi- 
dent's House, where no carriages will be admitted west of Fifteenth street or 
east of Seventeenth street. The police will see this regulation strictly enforced 
The following gentlemen have been selected as aids to the Marshal of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and assistants to Marshals of Divisions: 
Aids— George S. Gideon, William H. Winter. 

Assistant Marshals-/^^-^^ Division: Isaac Hall, J. D. Hoover, V. Marion 
Burche, Dr. H. P. Howard, J. T. Mitchell, J. R. Ashby, Richard H. Laskev 
P. H. HooE, F. Little, G. w. Yerbv. 

Second Division: John Potts, Thomas P. Morgan, Isaac R. Wilson Peter 
Wilson, W^illiam R. Woodward. 

Third Division: George McNeir, H. H. Heath, B. O. Payne, R E Doyle 
W. O. NiLES, John Macauley. 

Fourth Division: Peter M. Pearson, Leonidas Knowles, A T Harring- 
ton, John D. Clark, R. Gray Campbell, J. R. Harbaugh, Joseph Lyons 
John C. Winn. 

Fifth Division: R. A. Morsell, Robert W^ Keyworth. 
The following-named gentlemen have been selected from States and Territories 
and will report to James M. CuTTS for duty as Marshals at the Capitol: Samuel 
B. Paris, of Maine; George J. Abbott, of New Hampshire; J. H. Adams of 
Massachusetts; William Hunter, of Rhode Island; A. R. WadsworTh, of Con- 
necticut; HENRY E. Robinson, of Vermont; Archibald Campbell, of New 
\ork; A. VAN Wick, of New Jersey; Robert Morris, of Pennsvlvania; George 
P. fisher, of Delaware; Abram Barnes, of Maryland; Robert Chfw of Vir- 
gima; William W. Morrison, of North Carolina; Henry J. Kershaw, of 
South Carolina; L. McIntosh, of Georgia; Charles K. Sherman, of Alabama- 
lewis L. Taylor, of Mississippi; Stephen Duncan, of Louisiana; George w' 
Thompson, of Ohio; Richard Henry Lee, of Kentuckv; Moreau Brewer of 
H. Mis. 211 9 



130 Capitol Centennial Celel^ration 

Tennessee; ROBERT G. Hedrick, of Indiana; N1CHOLA.S Vedder, of Illinois; 

Edward M. Clark, of Missouri; E. B. Cui.VER, of Arkansas; S. Yorke At Lee, 

of Michigan; Robert A. Lacey, of Florida; Joseph F. Lewis, of Texas; Henry 

Clay Henderson, of Iowa; O. Alexander, of Wisconsin; G. S. Oldfield, Jr., 

of California; A. M. Mitchell, of Minnesota. 

Richard W.-vllach, 

Marshal of the District of Columbia. 



THE PROCESSION 

The following account of the proce.ssion and the ceremonies is 
condensed from the National Intelligencer of Monday, July 7, 
1851, and from other sources: 

The national anniversary, which was celebrated on Friday last, was 
in its important incidents, the fineness of the weather, and its freedom 
from all untoward circum.stances, perhaps the most inter- 
esting and agreeable ever enjoyed in this 
metropolis. 

The day was ushered in b}- salutes of 

artillery from different points of the 

cit}', and as the glorious sun gilded 

our tallest .spires and shed a hrster 

on the dome of the Capitol it was 



welcomed by a display of national 
flags and the ringing of bells 
from the various churches 
and engine houses. The 
tran.saction of secular busi- 
ness was forgotten, and at 
an early hour our whole 
population were engaged 
in preparations for a joy- 
ous ob.servance of a day 
which formed .so important 
an epoch in the history of 
our countr}' and the world. 
In the large Council 
Chamber of the City Hall 
were assembled the President of the United States, the members of 
the Cabinet, officers of the Army and Navy in full uniform, the Mayor 
and members of the corporation, and various civic bodies. 

At the appointed hour the various bodies were drawn into line. The 
First Division was preceded by the Mar.shal of the District of Colum- 
bia, Richard Wallach, E.sq., and his aids. The military escort 
consisted of the Mechanical Artillerists, Captani Duffy, of Alexandria; 




Extejisiou Con/rr Stoiic 



131 



Washington Light Infantry, Captain TaiT; National Bines, Captain 
Chesney, from Baltimore; National Grays, Captain Peter Bacon; 
Walker Sharpshooters, Lientenant Birkhead, and Columbian Rifle- 
men, Major McAllister, from Baltimore. The visiting companies 
from Baltimore, though few in number, attracted considerable atten- 
tion. The battalion was under command of General John Mason, 
aided by Majors Keyworth and Riley and Captain Tate, of the 
Infantry. 

The array of officers of the Army and Navy was one of the most 
imposing features of the pageant, including among them thirty or 
forty brave veterans, many of whom had faithfully spent the flower of 
their lives in the service of their country, with the Commander in 
Chief, Scott, at the head of the Military Division, and Commodore 
Morris at the head of the Naval, all in full uniform. 




In about thirty minutes the proce.ssion entered the north gate of 
the Capitol grounds, and were drawn up in order around the excava- 
tion for the corner .stone. 



CERKMONIES AT THE CAPITOL 

After a .salutatory by the Marine Band and order being proclaimed, 
the Rev. M. C. BuTler, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church and Chap- 
lain of the Senate, opened the ceremonies with the invocation, as 
follows: 



THE INVOCATION 

Almighty and immortal God, King of kings and Lord of lords, our Creator, 
Redeemer, and bountiful Benefactor, we bow before Thee in adoration, thanksgiv- 
ing, prayer, and praise. Thou ha.st given us life; Thou ha.st sent Thy son Jesus 
Christ to save us from sin and death; Thou hast surrounded us with the means 



132 Capitol Ccutnniial CcIchratio)i 

of j^race and set before us the hopes of K^ory. Make us, we l)eseech Thee, par- 
takers of Thy pardoniii_ti love. Give us ,t;race thankfully to accept Thy mercy 
and earnestly to do Thy will. 

We bless Thee, Heavenly Father, for all Thy mercies to us as a nation. Thou 
art a strong tower to those who fear Thy name. Our fathers trusted in Thee and 
were delivered. They have declared unto us the noble works which Thou didst 
in their days and in the old time before them. Thou did.st plant them in a goodly 
heritage; Thou didst unite them in their hour of peril; Thou did.st cover their 
heads and crown them with victory in the day of battle; Thou ha.st carried us, 
their children, forward to this luipj)y <lay in fraternal union, and pro.sperity, and 
peace. We beseech Thee to continue these Th}' blessings to us and to the gen- 
erations that shall come after us. Let Thy blessings rest on our beloved Chief 
Magi.strate, the President of the United .States; give to our lawgivers wi.sdom to 
devi.se and fidelity to execute such measures as shall promote the public virtue, 
harmony, and weal. Ble.ss our governors, legislatures, judges, militarj' and naval 
officers, and all who discharge public trusts. Grant that all e.states of men through- 
out our land, in their several vocations and ministries, may do Thy will and win 
Thy blessing, that peace and happiness, truth and ju.stice, religion and piety may 
be established among us for all generations. 

We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for this da}-, for the mercies which it brings. 
We bless Thee that Thou didst prosper the purposes and answer the praj-ers of 
our fathers, who on this day declared themselves and their coimtry free. We 
thank Thee for our broad land, our just Constitution, our good laws, our regulated 
freedom, our Union, our prosperity, and our peace. W^e thank Thee that we are 
permitted on this auspicioixs day to lay the corner stone of an extended Capitol to 
meet the wants of an enlarged land. Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon 
us, O Lord our God! Grant that as we lengthen our cords we may strengthen 
our stakes. Let our liberty ever be guided by law, our knowledge by religion, our 
power by justice, by mercy, and by peace. May we never rise our freedom as a 
cloak of maliciousness or licentiousne.ss, but remember always that "where the 
spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. ' ' Preserve the States of this Confederacy in 
perpetual union. Let not the spirit of pride, or of false zeal, or of wicked mis- 
chief, unbind or break the bonds which make them one. Let the corner stone 
of this Capitol and the corner stone of the Union of these States both rest stable 
and .strong until they shall be shaken and broken by the throes of the resur- 
rection morn! O God, our God and our fathers' God, we entreat Thee by Thy 
nudtiplied mercies to us in the past, by the momentous interests of the present, 
by all our fond hopes of future good for ourselves, our children, our country, and 
the world, we entreat Thee to preserve the States of this Union forever free and 
forever one! Smile, Heavenh' Father, upon the exercises of this day in this place 
and over all our beloved land. Preserve and ble.ss those who are engaged in 
them. May hallowed and happy influences attend the celebration of this anniver- 
sary more and more from age to age. Graciously accept our services and prayer, 
and freely pardon all our personal and national transgressions, for the sake of 
Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. 

Thomas U. Walter, architect of the new building, then took a 
survey of the .stone and deposited therein a gla.ss jar, hermetically 
sealed, which contained a variety of valuable historical parchments, 
coins of the United States, a special paper prepared by the Secretary 
of State (particularly described by Mr. Wkbster in his oration), the 
newspapers of the day, a copy of the oration to be delivered by the 
Secretary of State, and other memorials. 



o 




Extension Corner Stone 



133 



CORNER STONE LAID 

The corner stone of the extension was then, with ^reat dignity and 
solemnity, laid by Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, 
after which he gave place to the Masonic fraternity, whose special 
services were opened with prayer by their Grand' Chaplain, Rev. 
Charles A. Davis. The "corn of nourishment, the wine of refresh- 
ment, and the oil of joy" were severally deposited according to the 
ritual and practice of the fraternit>-. The Grand Master examined 
the stone, applied the square, level, and plumb, 
and pronounced it properly formed and of suit- 
able material for the purpose for which it was ^^ fTT^ ^ 
He then placed upon it the ^^^^^fc^- ^^^^fcRlpf 



intended 

corn, wine, and oil, saving as he did '^r. 

M.n the dll Ijouiililul Lu itoi hkss 
the people ot this nation, <,naiit to them 
all the necessaiiLs, Lonxtiiiences, and 
comforts of life, assist in the erection 
and completion of this edifice, piescrxe 










the workmen from any accident, and bestow upon us all the corn of nourish- 
ment, the wine of refreshment, and the oil of joy. 

Taking in hand the gavel, the Grand Master, continuing, said: 

With this gavel, which was used by the immortal Washington at the laying 
of the corner stone of that Capitol, and clothed with the same apron he then wore"^ 
I now pronounce this corner stone of this extension of that Capitol well laid, true,' 
and trusty. 

Accompanying the last words with three blows of the gavel, the 
Grand Master then turned to Thomas U.. Walter, the architect of 
the extension, and presenting him with the working tools, the square, 
level, and plun;b, he said: 

Mr. Architect, I now with pleasure present to you these working tools of your 
own profession, the .square, the level, and the plumb. We, as speculative Masons, 
use them symbolically; you, as an accomplished architect, well know their u.se 
practically, and may the noble edifice here to 1)e erected under ^•our charge 



1-54 Capitol Ccuiruuial Crlrbratioii 

arise in its beautiful proportions to completion in conformity with all your 
wishes, and may your life and health be long continued, and may you see the 
work go on and the capstone laid under circumstances as auspicious and as 
happv as those under which this corner stone is this day laid. 



ADDRESS OF B. B. FRENCH 

The line of procession and the multitude of people now changed 
position nearer to the front of the stand, the President, his escort, 
the marshals of the day, and distinguished guests taking their seats 
upon the lofty platform. 

Mr. B. B. French, Grand Master of Masons, then came to the front 
of the stand and spoke as follows: 

My Masonic Brethren: I rise to address you on this occasion deeply impressed 
with the circumstances which surround me. 

Standing as I do in the presence of some of the most exalted men of this 
nation, and to be followed as I am to be by one admitted by all as emphatic- 
ally the orator of his time, and of whom I can truly say, "He it is, who coming 
after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose," 
you will believe me guilty of no affectation when I say I feel a diffidence which is 
to me unusual. 

Still, as your Grand Master I have a duty to perform, and I shrink from no 
duty under any circumstances. As has been the custom of our revered order on 
such occasions, I shall proceed briefly to address you. 

I am unable to conceive of a more interesting occasion than this upon which 
we are here assembled on this anniversary of the birthday of American freedom. 

Here we are — the proud dome of our own Capitol towering above us — assem- 
bled together from the North and the South, from the East and the West, to 
perform a duty indicative in itself of the growth and prosperity of this mighty 
nation. 

On the iSth day of September, 1793, was laid, by GEORGE Washington, Presi- 
dent of the United States and Grand Master of Masons, at least on that occasion, 
the corner stone of the magnificent edifice before us. 

It was doubtless supposed that, when completed according to the plan then 
adopted, it would be of ample dimensions to accommodate all the wants of the 
people by whom it was to be erected for ages then to come. 

Fifty-eight years have elapsed, and in that comparatively brief space in the 
ages of Governments we are called upon to assemble here and lay the corner 
stone of an additional edifice, which shall hereafter tower up, resting firmly on 
the strong foundation this day planted, adding beauty and magnitude to the 
people's house, and illustrating to the world the firm foundation in the people's 
hearts of the principles of freedom and the rapid growth of those principles on 
this Western Continent. 

Yes, my brethren, standing here where fifty-eight years ago Washington 
stood, clothed in the same Masonic regalia that he then wore, using the identical 
gavel that he used, we have assisted in laying the foundation of a new Capitol 
of these United vStates this day, as Solomon of old laid the foundation of the 
temple of the living God. "Now, therefore," says the historian Josephus, "the 
king laid the foundation of the temple very deep in the ground, and the materials 
were strong stones, and such as would resist the force of time;" and we, fol- 



Extciisioji Comer Stone 13 c 

lowing this sublime example, have laid here, deep in the ground, and of strong 
stones that we trust will resist the force of time, the foundations of a house 
wherein we hope for lengthened years the representatives of a mighty poplee 
shall legislate for the glory, the happiness, and the good of that people. 

When the corner stone of the edifice before us was laid in 1793 the Government 
was justly considered an experiment, and the prediction was again and again 
made by those who, thank God, turned out to be false prophets, that it would 
fail. "The wish was" doubtless "father to the thought." But it did not fail! 
The first census of the United States, in 1791, exhibited a population of less than 
four millions of souls; at the time of the laying of that corner stone there were 
probably something over four millions; and now, in less than sixty years, the 
number has increased to upward of twenty millions ! The predictions of failure 
by the false prophets have themselves utterly failed, while the prayer has been 
answered and the prophecy fulfilled which Washington made on assuming the 
duties of President on the 30th of April, 1789. He then offered up his "fervent 
supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides 
in the councils of nations, and whose providential aid can supply every human 
defect, that His benediction would consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the 
people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essen- 
tial purposes; and would enable every instrument employed in its administration 
to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge." 

The ear of the Almighty was opened to that prayer; it was recorded in heaven; 
and from Washington down to the present President of the United States, who 
so worthily and with so much dignity and honor fills the proud station that 
Washington filled, it has been answered, and every instrument employed in 
the administration of this Government has executed with success the functions 
allotted to his charge. 

After this supplication to the Most High, Washington expressed his conviction 
that "the foundations of our national policy wall be laid in the pure and immu- 
table principles of private morality and the preeminence of a free government be 
exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and 
command the respect of the world." " I dwell," said he, " on this prospect with 
every satisfaction which an ardent love of my country can inspire, since there is 
no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and 
course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between 
duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous 
policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to 
be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected 
on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven 
itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and 
the destiny of the republican model of government are justlv considered as 
deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the 
American people." 

This prophecy has been fulfilled. Tlie foundations of our national policy cvcre 
laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the eternal 
rules of order and right haviuo- been regarded, the propitious smiles of Heaven 
have beamed upon the American people, to whose hands the "experiment" was 
intrusted. Prophecy has become fact, hope has become fruition, and the experi- 
ment on which the destiny of our republican model of government was deeplv 
and finally .staked has been entirely successful. 

But, my brethren, we must for a moment rever.se this bright picture of the past. 
As in the fabled mirror, when, under the power of the magic wand, clouds obscure 
the view for a tiine, and darkness and desolation shut from the beholder's eye 



136 



Capilol Cnifnniial Celebration 



some scene of happiness and J03-, so, within a short time past, has there been 
hovering over the brightness of om political horizon the dark and dismal clouds of 
disunion, and the time was, and that recently, " when the boldest held his breath " 
in anticipation of the shock which was expected to overwhelm the Republic. 

Thanks to Almighty God, the good old Ship of State weathered the dangers that 
seemed about to overwhelm her, and, like that glorious old battle ship, the G;;/.?/?- 
/'«/'7o;/, she has escaped the imminent dangers of a "lee shore," and is again, we 
hope and trust, in smooth water, with a cloudless horizon all around her. Heaven 
works not on earth without human means, and men and patriots were inspired in 
our daj^ of danger to cast themselves resolutely into the breach and strike boldly 
for the Union. The names of Clav, Webster, Cass, Foote, Cobb, Dickinson, 
Houston, Douglas, and a host of others, shall live in the history of the dark 
storm 'through which we have just pas.sed as the saviors of this glorious galaxy 
of American States; their names shall stand in history as the pillars of their country 
in the hour of her darkest trial. 

I know I shall be excused for saying that all save one of tho.se whose names I 

have mentioned are "brethren of 
the mystic tie." He to whose elo- 
quence you are about to listen is, 
if I mistake not, the exception. 

To these great, good, patriotic 
men, aided as they have been by 
the Executive of the nation, in 
whose every act a determination 
not to be misunderstood has been 
manifested to preserve the Union, 
do we, as I firmly believe, under 
God, owe the existence this day of 
these United States of America. 
Thanksbe to God; thanks to them! 
And now, my brethren, do we 
see nothing here in these cere- 
monies on this occasion to cheer 
us ? Cold indeed must be our 
hearts if they can beat on in their 
regular pulsations, while our eyes 
behold nothing but a plain rock 
of granite, hewed and squared, and 
our ears hear nothing further than 
" it is a corner stone." 

I see in these ceremonies, as it 
were, the spirit of Washington among us, renewing the hopes and wishes and 
prayers that he never failed to offer in his lifetime for the perpetuation of this 
Union. In that corner stone I perceive the seal set to a renewed lease of the ex- 
istence of this Union. Lease, did I say? No; a deed of warrant in fee simple, 
to have and to hold to us and our heirs and representatives FOREVER. 

In the erection of this new Capitol, adjoining the old one, I see Texas and 
California and New Mexico come in and unite themselves to our old Union and 
become one and the same with it; and in leaving this old Capitol untouched I 
see the old Union, South Carolina and all, standing firmly, proudly, in its glorious 
strength, unbroken and unbreakable; and let us firmly hope and pray so may it 
stand EOREVER AND FOREVER. 




Extension Corner Stone 



DANIElv WEBSTER'S ORATION 



^37 



Daniel Webster, Secretary of State and orator of the daj^ then 
rose from a chair next to President Fillmore and came to the front 
of the stand. He was welcomed b}^ the hearty cheers of the mukitude 
and proceeded to read the address which he had prepared, a copy of 
which had been deposited in the corner stone. He did not, however, 
confine himself to the manuscript, but occasionally extemporized new 
thoughts and highly interesting reflections, which, together with the 
reading, occupied him nearly two hours. 

Mr. Webster spoke as follows: 

Fellow-Citizens: I congratulate you, I give you joy, on the return of this 
anniversary; and I felicitate you also on the more particular purpose of which 
this ever-memorable day has been chosen to vi^itness the fulfillment. Hail! All 
hail! I see before and around me a mass of faces glowing with cheerfulness and 
patriotic pride. I see thousands of ej-es, turned toward other eyes, all sparkling 
with gratification and delight. This is the New World! This is America! And 
this is Washington, the capital of the United States! And where else, among 
the nations, can the seat of government be surrounded, on any day of any year, 
b}' those who have more reason to rejoice in the blessings which they possess? 
Nowhere, fellow-citizens; assuredly, nowhere. Let us, then, meet this rising sun 
with joy and thanksgiving. 

This is that day of the year which announced to mankind the great fact of 
American Independence. This fresh and brilliant morning blesses our vision with 
another beholding of the birthday of our nation; and we see that nation, of recent 
origin, now among the most considerable and powerful, and spreading over the 
continent from sea to sea. 

Among the first colonists from Europe to this part of America there were some, 
doubtless, who contemplated the distant consequences of their vindertaking and 
who saw a great futurity; but in general their hopes were limited to the enjov- 
ment of a safe asylum from tyranny, religious and civil, and to respectable sub- 
sistence by industry and toil. A thick veil hid our times from their view. But 
the progress of America, however slow, could not but at length awaken genius 
and attract the attention of mankind. 

In the early part of the next century. Bishop BERKELEY, who, it will be 
remembered, had resided for some time in Newport, in Rhode Island, wrote his 
well-known " Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in Amer- 
ica." The last stanza of this little poem seems to have been produced by a 
high poetical inspiration: 

Westward the course of empire takes its way ; 

The first four acts already past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day; 

Time's noblest ofTspring is the last. 

This extraordinary prophecy may be considered only as the result of long 
foresight and uncommon sagacity; of a foresight and sagacity stimulated, never- 
theless, by excited feeling and high enthusiasm. So clear a vision of what 
America would become was not founded on square miles, or on existing numbers, 
or on any vulgar laws of statistics. It was an intuitive glance into futuritv; it 
was a grand conception, strong, ardent, glowing, embracing all time since the 
creation of the world and all regions of which that world is composed, and 



138 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

judging the future by just analogy with the past. And the inimitable imagery 
and beauty with which the thought is expressed, joined to the conception itself, 
render it one of the most striking passages in our language. 

On the day of the Declaration of Independence our illustrious fathers performed 
the first act of this drama, an act in real importance infinitely exceeding that 
for which the great English poet invoked 

A muse of fire, * * * 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! 

The muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire with a 
sen.se of oppression and a resolution to throw it off ; the whole world was the 
stage, and higher characters than princes trod it; and instead of monarchs, 
countries and nations and the age beheld the swelling scene. How well the 
characters were cast, and how well each acted his part, and what emotions the 
whole performance excited, let history now and hereafter tell. 

At a subsequent period, but before the Declaration of Independence, the Bishop 
of vSt. Asaph published a discourse in which the following remarkable passages 
are found: 

It is difficult for man to look into the destiny of future ages. The designs of Providence are 
too vast and complicated and our own powers are too narrow to admit of much satisfaction to 
our curiosity. But when we see many great and powerful causes constantly at work, we can 
not doubt of their producing proportionable effects. 

The Colonies of North America have not only taken root and acquired strength, but seem has- 
tening with an accelerated progress to such a powerful state as may introduce a new and important 
change in human affairs. 

Descended from ancestors of the most improved and enlightened part of the Old World, they 
receive, as it were by inheritance, all the improvements and discoveries oftheir mother country: 
and it happens, fortunately for them, to commence their floui'lshing state at a time when the 
human understanding has attained to the free use of its powers and learned to act with vigor 
and certainty. They may avail themselves not only of the experience and industry but even of 
the errors and mistakes of our former days. Let it be considered for how many ages a great 
part of the world appears not to have thought at all; how many more they have been busied in 
forming systems and conjectures, while reason has been lost in a labyrinth ot words, and they 
never seem to have suspected on what frivolous matters their minds were employed. 

.\nd let it be well understood what rapid improvements, what important discoveries have been 
made in a few years by a few countries, with our own at their head, which have at last discov- 
ered the right method of using their faculties. 

May we not reasonably expect that a number of provinces, possessed of those advantages, and 
quickened by mutual emulation, with only the common progress of the human mind, should very 
considerably enlarge the boundaries of science? 

The vast continent itself, over which they are gradually spreading, may be con.sidered as a 
treasure, yet untouched, of natural productions that shall hereafter afiford ample matter for 
commerce and contemplation. And if we reflect what a stock of knowledge may be accumulated 
by the constant progress of industry and observation, ted with fresh supplies from the stores 
of nature, assisted .sometimes by those happy strokes ot chance which mock all the powers of 
invention, and .sonietimes by those superior characters which arise occasionally to instruct and 
enlighten the world, it is difficult even to imagine to what height of improvement their di.scoveries 
may e.xtend. 

And perhaps they may make as considerable advances in the arts 0/ civil government and the 
conduct 0/ 1 i/e. We have reason to be proud, and even jealous, of our excellent corstitution; but 
those equitable principles upon which it was formed, an equal representation (the best discovery 
of political wisdom), and a just and commodious distributioti of power, which with us were the 
price of civil wars and the rewards of the virtues and sufferings of our ancestors, descend to them 
as a natural inheritance, without toil or pain. 

But must thev rest here, as in the utmost effort of human genius? Can chance and time, the wisdotn 
and the experience of public men, suggest no neiv remedy against the evils which vices and ambition 
are perpetually apt to cause? May they not hope, without presumption, to preserve a greater 
zeal for piety and public devotion than we have done? For surely it can hardly happen to 
them, as it has to us, that when religion is best understood and rendered most pure and rea- 
sonable, then should be the precise time when many cease to believe and practice it, and all in 
general become most indifferent to it. 



Extension Corner Stone 139 

May they not possibly be more successful than their mother country in preser\'ing that rev- 
erence and authority which is due to the laws? to those who make and to those who execute 
them? May not a method be invented of procuring some tolerable share of the comforts of life to 
those inferior useful ranks of men to zuhose industry we are indebted for the wholef Time and 
discipline tnay discover some means to correct the extreme inequalities of condition betiueen the rich 
and the poor, so dangerous to the innocence and happiness of both. Thej^ may be fortunately led 
by habit and choice to despise that luxury which is considered with us the true enjoyment of 
wealth. They may have little relish for that ceaseless hurry of amusements which is pursued 
in this country without pleasure, exercise, or enjoyment. And perhaps, after trying some of 
our follies and caprices and rejecting the rest, they may be led by reason and experiment to 
that old simplicity which was first pointed out by Nature, and has produced those models which 
we still admire in arts, eloquence, and manners. The diversity of new scenes and situations 
which so many growing States must tiecessarily pass through may introduce changes in the fluctu- 
ating opinions and manners of 7nen which ive can form no conception of; and not onlj' the gracious 
disposition of Providence, but the vi.sible preparation of causes, seems to indicate strong ten- 
dencies toward a general improvement. 

Fellow-citizens, this gracious dispensation of Providence and this visible prepa- 
ration of causes at length brought on the hour for decisive action. On the 4th 
of July, 1776, the representatives of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
Free and Independent States. 

This declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in the 
justice of their cause and the protection of Heaven, and 3-et made not without 
deep solicitude and anxiety, has now stood for seventy-five years and still stands. 
It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers and overcame them; it has had 
enemies and it has conquered them; it has had detractors and it has abashed 
them all; it has had doubting friends, but it has cleared all doubts away; and 
now, to-day, raising its august form higher than the clouds, twenty millions of 
people contemplate it with hallowed love, and the world beholds it and the con- 
sequences which have followed from it with profound admiration. 

This anniversary animates and gladdens and unites all American hearts. On 
other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in controversies more or 
less impoilant to the public good; we may have likes and dislikes and we may 
maintain our political differences, often with warm and sometimes with angry 
feelings. But to-day we are Americans all; and all nothing but Americans. As 
the great luminary over our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, now cheers the 
whole hemisphere, so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy 
and sullen weather, and all noxious exhalations in the minds and feelings of true 
Americans. Every man's heart swells within him; every man's port and bearing 
become somewhat more proud and lofty as he remembers that seventy-five years 
have rolled away and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his; his, undi- 
minished and unimpaired; his in all its original glory; his to enjoy; his to protect; 
and his to transmit to future generations. 

Fellow-citizens, this inheritance which we enjoy to-da^- is not only an inheritance 
of liberty, but of our own peculiar American liberty. Liberty has existed in other 
times, in other countries, and in other forms. There has been a Grecian liberty, 
bold and powerful, full of spirit, eloquence, and fire, a libertj- which produced 
multitudes of great men and has transmitted one immortal name, the name of 
Demosthenes, to posterity. But still it was a liberty of disconnected states, some- 
times united, indeed, by temporary leagties and confederacies, but often involved 
in wars between themselves. The sword of Sparta turned its sharpest edge against 
Athens, enslaved her, and devastated Greece, and, in her turn, Sparta was com- 
pelled to bend before the power of Thebes; and let it be ever remembered, 
especially let the truth sink deep into American minds, that it was the \v.\xT of 
UNION among her several states which finally gave the mastery of all Greece to 
Phiup of Macedon. 



140 Capitol Crutcnnial Crlrhration 

And there has also been a Roman liberty, a proud, ambitious, domineering 
spirit, professing free and popular principles in Rome itself, but, even in the best 
days of the republic, ready to carry slavery and chains into her provinces and 
through every country over which her eagles could be borne. Who ever heard of 
liberty in Spain, or Gaul, or Germany, or Britain in the days of Rome? There 
was none such. As the Roman Empire declined, her provinces, not instructed in 
the principles of free popular government, one after another declined also, and 
vv^hen Rome herself fell in the end, all fell together. 

I have said, gentlemen, that our inheritance is an inheritance of American libert}-. 
That libertv is characteristic, peculiar, and altogether our own. Nothing like it 
existed in former times nor was known in the most enlightened states of antiquity; 
while with us its principles have become interwoven into the minds of individual 
men, connected with our daily opinions and our daily habits, until it is, if I may 
so say, an element of social as well as of political life; and the consequence is, that 
to whatever region an American citizen carries himself, he takes with him, fully 
developed in his own understanding and experience, our American principles and 
opinions, and becomes ready at once, in cooperation with others, to apply them 
to the formation of new governments. Of this a most wonderful instance may be 
seen in the history of the State of California. 

On a former occasion I have \ entured to remark that ' ' it is very difficult to 
establish a free conservative government for the equal advancement of all the 
interests of society. What has Germany done; learned German}^, fuller of ancient 
lore than all the world beside ? What has Italy done ? What have they done w'ho 
dwell on the spot where CiCERO lived? The}' have not the power of self-govern- 
ment which a common town meeting with us possesses. Yes, I say that those 
persons who have gone from our town meetings to dig gold in California are more 
fit to make a republican government than any body of men in Germany or Italy 
because they have learned this one great lesson, that there is no securit}' with- 
out law, and that under the circumstances in which they are placed, where there 
is no military authority to cut their throats, there is no sovereign will but the will 
of the majority; that, therefore, if they remain, they must submit to that will." 
And this I believe to be strictly true. 

Now, fellow-citizens, if your patience will hold out, I will venture, before pro- 
ceeding to the more appropriate and particular duties of the day, to state in a 
few words what I take these American political principles to be. They consist, 
as I think, in the first place, in the establi.shment of popular governments on the 
basis of representation, for it is plain that a pure democrac}-, like that which 
existed in some of the states of Greece, in which every individual had a direct 
vote in the enactment of all laws, can not possibly exist in a country of wide 
extent. This representation is to be made as equal as circumstances will allow. 
Now, this principle of popular representation, prevailing either in all the branches 
of governments or in some of them, has existed in these States almost from the 
days of the settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth, borrowed, no doubt, from 
the example of the popular branch of the British legislature. The representation 
of the people in the British House of Commons was indeed originallj- very unequal, 
and it is yet not equal. Indeed, it may be doubted whether the appearance of 
knights and burgesses, assembling on the summons of the Crown, was not intended 
at first as an assistance and support to the royal prerogative in matters of revenue 
and taxation rather than as a mode of ascertaining popular opinion. Neverthe- 
less, representation had a popular origin and savored more and more of the char- 
acter of that origin as it acquired by slow degrees greater and greater strength in 
the actual government of the country. In fact, the con.stitution of the House of 
Commons was a form of representation, however unequal; numbers were counted 



Extension Corner Stone 141 

and majorities prevailed. And when our ancestors, acting upon this example, 
introduced more equality of representation, the idea assumed a more rational and 
distinct shape. At any rate, this manner of exercising popular power was familiar 
to our fathers when they settled on this continent. They adopted it, and genera- 
tion has risen up after generation, all acknowledging it and becoming acquainted 
with its practice and its forms. 

And the next fundamental principle in our sj-stem is, that the will of the major- 
ity, fairly expressed through the means of representation, shall have the force of 
law; and it is quite evident in a country' without thrones or aristocracies or privi- 
leged castes or classes there can be no other foundation for law to stand upon. 

And, as the necessary result of this, the third element is, that the law is the 
supreme rule for the government of all. The great sentiment of Ai,C^US, so 
beautifully presented to lis by Sir William Jonks, is absolutel}- indispensable to 
the construction and maintenance of political systems: 

what constitutes a state? 
Not high-raised battlements or labored mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; 

Not bays and broad-arm'd ports. 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 

Not starr'd and spangled courts. 
Where low-brow'd baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No — Mkn, high-minded Men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued 

In forest, brake, or den, 
As beasts excel cold rock and l)rambles rude; 

Men who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain; 

Prevent the long-aim'd blow, 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain; 

These constitute a state; 
And Sovereign L.^w, that state's collected will, 

O'er thrones and globes elate. 
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. 

And, finally, another mo.st important part of the great fabric of American liberty 
is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded on the immediate authority 
of the people themselves, and regulating and restraining all the powers conferred 
upon government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial. 

This, fellow-citizens, I suppose to be a just summary of our American princi- 
ples, and I have on this occasion sought to express them in the plainest and in the 
fewest words. The summary may not be entirely exact, but I hope it may be sufH- 
ciently so to make manifest to the rising generation among ourselves, and to those 
elsewhere who may choose to inquire into the nature of our political institutions, 
the general theory upon which they are founded. And I now proceed to add 
that the strong and deep-settled conviction of all intelligent persons among us is, 
that in order to support a useful and wise government upon these popular princi- 
ples the general education of the people and the wide diffusion of pure morality 
and true religion are indispensable. Individual virtue is a part of public virtue. 
It is diflficult to see how there can remain morality in the Government when it 
shall cease to exist among the people, or how the aggregate of the political institu- 
tions, all the organs of which consist only of men, should be wise and beneficent, 
and competent to inspire confidence, if the opposite qualities belong to the indi- 
viduals who constitute those organs and make up that aggregate. 

And now, fellow-citizens, I take leave of this part of the duty which I proposed 
to perform, and once more felicitating you and myself that our eyes have seen 
the light of this blessed morning, and that our ears have heard the shouts with 



142 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

which joyous thousands welcome its return, ruul joinin.i^ with you in the hope 
that every revolving year shall renew these rejoicings to the end of time, I proceed 
to address you, shortly, upon the particular occasion of our assembling here to-day. 

Fellow-citizens, by the act of Congress of the 30th of September, 1850, provision 
•was made for the extension of the Capitol, according to such plan as might 
be approved by the President of the United States, and the necessary sums to be 
expended under his direction by such architect as he might appoint. This measure 
was imperatively demanded for the use of the legislative and judiciary departments, 
the public libraries, the occasional accommodation of the Chief Executive Magis- 
trate, and for other objects. No act of Congress incurring a large expenditure has 
received more general approbation of the people. The President has proceeded to 
execute this law. He has approved a plan; he has appointed an architect; and all 
things are now ready for the conniiencement of the work. 

The anniversary of National Independence appeared to afford an auspicious 
occasion for laying the foundation stone of the additional building. That cere- 
mony has now been performed by the President himself in the presence and view 
of this multitude. He has thought that the day and the occasion made a united 
and an imperative call for some short address to the people here assembled; and 
it is at his request that I have appeared before j-ou to perform that part of the 
duty which was deemed incumbent upon us. 

Beneath the stone is deposited, among other things, a list of which will be 
published, the following brief account of the proceedings of this day, in my hand- 
writing: 

On the morning of the first day of the seventy-sixth year of the Independence of the United 
States of America, in the city of Washington, being the 4th day of July, 1S51, this stone, de- 
signed as the corner stone of the extension of the Capitol, according to a plan approved by the 
President, in pursuance of an act of Congress, was laid by Millard Fillmore, President of 
the United States, assisted by the Grand Master of the Masonic lodges, in the presence of many 
Members of Congress, of officers of the executive and judiciary departments. National, State, 
and District, of officers of the Army and Navy, the corporate authorities of this and neighboring 
cities, many associations, civil and military and Masonic, officers of the Smithsonian Institution 
and National Institute, professors of colleges and teachers of schools of the District with their 
students and pupils, and avast concourse of people from places near and remote, including a 
few sui-\'iving gentlemen who witnessed the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol by Presi- 
dent Washington on the iSth day of September, 1793. 

If it shall hereafter be the will of God that this structure shall fall from its base, that its 

foundation be upturned and this deposit brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on 

this day the Union of the United States of America stands firm; that their Constitution still 

exists unimpaired and with all its original usefulness and glory; growing every day stronger 

and stronger in the afTections of the great body of the American people and attracting more 

and more the admiration of the world. And all here assembled, whether belonging to public 

life or to private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for the preservation of the 

liberty and happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit and 

the walls and arches, the domes and towers, the columns and entablatures, now to be erected 

over it, may endure forever! 

God save the United States of America! 

Daniel Webster, 

Secretary of State of the United States. 

Fellow-citizens, fifty-eight years ago Washington stood on this spot to execute 
a duty like that which has now been performed. He then laid the corner stone 
of the original Capitol. He was at the head of the Government at that time, 
weak in resources, burdened with debt, just struggling into political existence and 
respectability, and agitated by the heaving waves which were overturning European 
thrones. But even then, in many important respects, the Government was strong 
It was strong in Washington's own great character; it was strong in the wisdom 
and patriotism of other eminent public men, his political associates and fellow 
laborers, and it was strong in the affections of the people. 



Extension Corner Stone 



143 



Since that time astonishing changes have been wrought in the condition and 
prospects of the American people, and a degree of progress witnessed with which 
the world can furnish no parallel. As we review the course of that progress 
wonder and amazement arrest our attention at every step. The present occasion, 
although allowing of no lengthened remarks, niaj' yet perhaps admit of a short 
comparative statement between important subjects of national interest as they 
existed at that day and as they now exist. I have adopted for this purpose the 
tabular form of statement as being the most brief and the most accurate. 

Comparative table. 



1793- 



3. 929. 

l8, 

13. 
42. 

33. 



4, 

16, 

$5. 720, 

57. 529- 



Nutnber of States . . ■ 

Representatives and Senators in Congress 

Population of the United States 

Population of Boston 

Population of Baltimore ■ • 

Population of Philadelphia 

Population of New Vork City 

Population of Washington 

Population of Richmond 

Population of Charleston 

Amount of receipts into the Treasury 

Amount of expenditures of the United States 

Amount of imports ; S3 ' ■ ooO' 

Amount of exports .... $25, log, 

Amount of tonnage 

Area of the United States, in square miles 

Rank and file of the Army 

Militia (enrolled) ■■ • 

Navy of the United States (vessels) 

Navy armament (ordnance) 

Treaties and conventions with foreign powers 

Light-houses and light-boats 

Expenditures for light-boats 

Area of the first Capitol building {square feet) 

Area of the present Capitol, including extension (acres) 

Lines of railroads, in miles 

Lines of telegraph, in miles 

Number of post-offices 

Number of miles of post route 

Amount of revenue from post offices 

Amount of expenditures of Post-Office Department 

Number of miles mail transportation 

Number of colleges 

Public libraries 

Volumes in libraries 

School libraries 

Volumes in libraries 



5. 
$104, 
$72, 



1851. 

31 

295 

23, 267, 498 

136,871 

169, 054 

409. 045 

515.507 

40. 075 

27. 5S2 

42, 9S3 

$43, 774, S48 

I39. 355. 268 

$178, 138,318 

$151,898,720 

3. 535. 454 

3. 314. 365 

10. 000 

2, 006, 456 

76 

2,012 

90 

372 

529. 265 



4 '4 

8,500 

15,000 

21, 551 

178, 762 

$5. 592, 971 

$5,212,953 

46,541,423 

121 

694 

2, 201, 632 

10,000 

2, 000, 000 



In respect to the growth of Western trade and commerce. I extract a few sen- 
tences from a very valuable address before the Historical Society of Ohio, by 
William D. Gallagher, Esq., 1850: 

A few facts will exhibit as well as a volume the wonderful growth of Western trade and 
commerce. Previous to the year iSoo .some eight or ten keel boats of twenty or twenty-five tons 
each performed all the carrying trade between Cincinnati and Pittsburg. In 1S02 the first Gov- 
ernment vessel appeared on Lake Erie. In iSii the first .steamboat (the Orleans) was launched 
at Pittsburg. In 1826 the waters of Michigan were first plowed by the keel of a steamboat, a 
pleasure trip to Green Bay being planned and executed in the summer of this j'ear. In 1832 



144 



Capitol CcntcJinial Celebration 



a steamboat first appeared at Chicago. At the present titne the entire number of steamboats 
running on the Mississippi and Ohio and their tributaries is more probably over than under six 
hundred, the aggregate tonnage of which is not short of one hundred and forty thousand — a 
larger number of steamboats than England can claim and a greater steam commercial marine 
than that employed by Crcat Hritain and her dependencies. 

And now, fellow-citizens, having .stated to you this infallible proof of the growth 
and prosperity of the nation, I ask you, and I would a.sk every man, whether the 
Government which has been over us has jjroved it.self an infliction or a curse 
to the country or an}' part of it ? 

Ye men of the South, of all the original vSouthern States, what say you to 
all this? Are you, or any of you, ashamed ot this great work of your fathers? 
Your fathers were not they who stoned the prophets and killed them. They 
were among the prophets; they were of the prophets; they were themselves the 
prophets. 

Ye men of Virginia, what do you say to all this? Ye men of the Potomac, 

dwelling along the shores of that river 

where Washington lived, and where 

he died, and where his remains now 

:^Zr_ rest — ye, so many of whom may see 

the domes of the Capitol from jour 

own home.s — w hat do you say ? 

Ye men of James River and the 
Bay, places consecrated by the early 
settlement of your Commonwealth, 
what do you say ? Do jou desire, 
from the soil of your State or as you 
travel to the North, to see these halls 
vacated, their beauty and ornaments de- 
stroyed, and their national usefulness 
clean gone forever ? 

Ye men beyond the Blue Ridge, many 
thousands of whom are nearer to this Cap- 
itol than to the seat of government of 
your own State, what do you think of 
breaking this great association into frag- 
ments of States and of people? I know- 
some of you, and I believe you all would 
be almost as much shocked at the announce- 
ment of such a catastrophe as if you were to be informed that the Blue Ridge 
itself would soon totter to its base. And ye men of western Virginia, who occupy 
the great slope from the top of the Alleghany to the Ohio and Kentucky, what 
course do you propose to yourselves by disunion? If you "secede," what do 
you "secede" from, and what do you "accede" to? Do yovi look for the current 
of the Ohio to change, and to bring you and your commerce to the tide waters 
of Eastern rivers? What man in his senses can suppose that you will remain part 
and parcel of Virginia a month after Virginia should have ceased to be part and 
parcel of the United States? 

The secession of Virginia! The secession of Virginia, whether alone or in 
company, is most improbable, the greatest of improbabilities. Virginia, to her 
everlasting honor, acted a great part in framing and establishing the present Con- 
stitution. She hath had her reward and her distinction. Seven of her noble 
sons have each filled the Presidency and enjoyed the highest honors of the 
country. Dolorous complaints come up to us from the South that Virginia will 




Extension Corner Stone 145 

not head the procession of secession and lead the other Southern vStates out of 
the Union. This would be something of a marvel, certainh-, considering how 
much pains Virginia took to lead these same States into the Union, and considering, 
too, that she has partaken as largely of its benefits and its government as any 
other State. 

And ye men of the other Southern States, members of the old thirteen; yes, 
members of the old thirteen — that touches my regard and my sympathies — North 
Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, what page in your history or in the history 
of any one of you is brighter than those which have been recorded since the 
Union was formed, or through what effect has your prosperity been greater or 
your peace and happiness better secured ? What names even has South Carolina, 
now so much dissatisfied — what names has she of which her intelligent sons are 
more proud than those which have been connected with the government of South 
Carolina? In Revolutionary times and in the earliest days of the Constitution 
there was no State more honored or more deserving to be honored. Where is 
she now? And "What a fall is there, my countrymen! " But I leave her to her 
own reflections, commending to her with all my heart the due consideration of 
her own example in times now gone by. 

Fellow-citizens, there are some diseases of the mind as well as of the body, 
diseases of communities as well as diseases of individuals, that must be left to 
their own cure; at least it is wise to leave them so until the last critical moment 
shall arrive. 

I hope it is not irreverent, and certainly it is not intended as reproach, when 
I say that I know no stronger expression in our language than that which describes 
the restoration of a wayward son, "He came to himself." He had broken away 
from all the ties of love, family, and friendship. He had forsaken everything 
which he had once regarded in his father's house. He had quitted his natural 
sympathies, affections, and habits, and taken his journey into a far countr}'. He 
had gone away from himself and out of himself. But misfortunes overtook him 
and famine threatened him with starvation and death. No entreaties from home 
followed him to beckon him back; no admonition from others warned him of his 
fate. But the hour of reflection had come, and nature and conscience wrought 
with him until at length "he came to himself." 

And now, ye men of the new States of the South ! You are not of the original 
thirteen. The battle had been fought and won, the revolution achieved, and the 
Constitution established before your States had any existence as States. You 
came into a prepared banquet and had seats assigned you at the table just as 
honorable as those which were filled by older guests. You have been and are 
singularly prosperous; and if anyone should deny this you would at once con- 
tradict his assertion. You have bought vast quantities of choice and excellent 
land at the lowest price; and if the public domain has not been lavished upon 
you, you yourselves will admit that it has been appropriated to your ow-n uses by 
a very liberal hand. And yet in some of these States — not in all — persons are 
found in favor of a dissolution of the Union, or of secession from it. Such opin- 
ions are expressed even where the general prosperity of the community has been 
the most rapidly advanced. In the flourishing and interesting State of Mississippi, 
for example, there is a large party which insists that her grievances are intolerable; 
that the whole body politic is in a state of suffering, and all along and through 
her whole extent on the Mississippi a loud cry rings that her only remedy is 
"Secession!" "Secession!" Now, gentlemen, what infliction does the State of 
Mississippi suffer under? What oppression prostrates her strength or destroys 
her happiness? Before we can judge of the proper remedy we must know some- 
thing of the disease; and for my part I confess that the real evil existing in the 

H. Mis. 211 10 



146 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

case appears to me to be a certain inquietude or uneasiness growing out of a high 
degree of prosperity and consciousness of wealth and power, which sometimes 
leads men to be ready for changes and to push on to still higher elevation. If 
this be the truth of the matter, the doctors are about right. If the complaint 
spring from overwrought prosperity, for that disease I have no doubt that "seces- 
sion" would prove a sovereign remedy. 

But I return to the leading topic on which I was engaged. In the department 
of invention there have been wonderful applications of science to arts within the 
last sixt}' years. The .spacious hall of the Patent Office is at once the repository 
and proof of American inventive art and genius. Their results are seen in the 
numerous improvements by which human labor is abridged. 

Without going into details, it may be sufficient to say that many of the appli- 
cations of steam to locomotion and manufactures; of electricity and magnetism 
to the production of mechanical motion, to the electrical telegraph, to the regis- 
tration of astronomical phenomena, to the art of multiplying engravings; the 
introduction and improvement among us of all the important inventions of the 
Old World, are .strikingly indicative of this country in the useful arts. 

The network of railroads and telegraph lines b}' which this va.st country is 
reticulated have not only developed its resources, but united emphatically, in 
metallic bands, all parts of the Union. 

The hydraulic works of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston surpass in extent 
and importance those of ancient Rome. 

But we have not confined our attention to the immediate application of science 
to the useful arts. We have entered the field of original research and have enlarged 
the bounds of scientific knowledge. 

Sixty years ago, besides the brilliant discoveries of Franklin in electricity scarcely 
anything had been done among us in the way of original discovery. Our men 
of science were content with repeating the experiments and diffusing a knowledge 
of the discoveries of the learned of the Old World without attempting to add a 
single new fact or principle to the existing stock. Within the last twenty-five or 
thirt}' 3'ears a remarkable improvement has taken place in this respect. Our natu- 
ral histor}' has been explored in all its branches; our geology has been investigated 
with results of the highest interest to practical and theoretical science; discoveries 
have been made in pure chemistry and electricity which have received the appro- 
bation of the world. The advance which has been made in meteorology in this 
country within the last twenty years is equal to that made during the same period 
in all the world besides. 

In 1793 there was not in the United States an instrument with which a good 
observation of the heavenly bodies could be made. There are now instruments 
at Washington, Cambridge, and Cincinnati equal to those at the best European 
observatories; and the original discoveries in astronomy within the last five years 
in this country are among the most brilliant of the age. I can hardly refrain 
from saying in this connection that La Pi,ace has been translated, explained, 
and in some instances his illustrations improved by BowdiTch. 

Our knowledge of the geography and topography of the American continent 
has been rapidly extended by the labor and science of the officers of the United 
States Army, and discoveries of much interest on distant seas have resulted from 
the enterprise of the Nav}-. 

In 1807 a survey of the coast of the United States was commenced, which at 
that time it was suppo.sed no American was competent to direct. The work has, 
however, grown within the last few years, under a native superintendent, in impor- 
tance and extent beyond any enterprise of the kind ever before attempted. 

These facts conclusively prove that a great advance has been made among us, 
not only in the application of science to the wants of ordinary life, but to science 



Extension Corner Stone 147 

itself in its highest branches— in its application to satisfy the cravings of the 
immortal mind. 

In respect to literature, with the exception of some books of elementary educa- 
tion, and some theological treatises, of which scarcely any but those of Jonathan 
Edwards have any permanent value, and some works on local history and politics, 
like Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, the Federalist, 
Belknap's New Hampshire, and Morse's Geography, and a few others, America 
had not produced a single work of any repute in literature. We were almost wholly 
dependent on imported books. Even our Bibles and Testaments were, for the most 
part, printed abroad. The book trade is now one of the greatest branches of busi- 
ness, and many works of standard value and of high reputation in Europe as well 
as at home have been produced by American authors in every department of 
literary composition. 

While the country has been expanding in dimensions, in numbers, and in 
wealth, the Government has applied a wise forecast in the adoption of measures 
necessary, when the world shall no longer be at peace, to maintain the national 
honor, whether by appropriate displays of vigor abroad or by well-adapted means 
of defense at home. A navy which has so often illustrated our history by heroic 
achievements, though restrained in peaceful times in its operations to narrow limits, 
possesses in its admirable elements the means of great and sudden expansion, and 
is justly looked upon by the nation as the right arm of its power, an army, still 
smaller, but not less perfect in its detail, which has on many a field exhibited the 
military aptitudes and prowess of the race, and demonstrated the wisdom which 
has presided over its organization and government. 

While the gradual and slow enlargement of these respective military arms has 
been regulated by a jealous watchfulness over the public treasure, there has, 
nevertheless, been freely given all that was needed to perfect their quality; and 
each affords the nucleus of any enlargement that the public exigencies' may 
demand, from the millions of brave hearts and strong arms upon the land and 
water. 

The Navy is the active and aggressive element of national defense, and, let 
loose from our own seacoast, must display its power in the seas and channels of 
the enemy. To do this it need not be large, and it can never be large enough 
to defend by its presence at home all our ports and harbors. But, in the absence 
of the Navy, what can the brave hearts and strong arms of the Army and militia 
do against the enemy's Hne-of-battle ships and steamers falling without notice 
upon our coast? What will guard our cities from tribute, our merchant vessels 
and our navy-yards from conflagration? Here, again, we see a wise forecast in 
the system of defensive measures which, especially since the close of the war with 
Great Britain, has been steadily followed by our Government. While the perils 
from which our great establishments had just escaped were yet fresh of remem- 
brance, a system of fortifications was begun which now. though not quite com- 
plete, fences in our important points with impassable strength. More than four 
thousand cannon may at any moment, within strong and permanent works, 
arranged with all the advantages and appliances that the art affords, be turned 
to the protection of the seacoast and be served by the men whose hearths they 
shelter. Happy for us that it is so, since these are means of security that time 
alone can supply; and since the improvements of maritime warfare, by making 
distant expeditions easy and speedy, have made them more probable and at the 
same time more difiicult to anticipate and provide against. The cost of fortifying 
all the important points on our whole Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico frontier will 
not exceed the amount expended on the fortifications of Paris. 

In this connection one most important facility in the defense of the country is 
not to be overlooked; it is the almost instantaneous rapidity with which the 



148 Capitol Centennial Cetebratioit 

soldiers of the Army and any number of the militia corps may be brought to any 
point where a hostile attack may at any time be made or threatened. 

And this extension of territory embraced within the United States, increase of 
its population, commerce, and manufactures, development of its resources by 
canals and railroads, and rapidity of intercommunication by innumerable steam- 
boats and telegraphs has been accomplished without the overthrow of or danger to 
the public liberties by any assumption of militar}' power, and, indeed, without any 
permanent increase of the Army except for the purpose of frontier defense, and 
of affording a slight guard to the public property; or of the Navy any further 
than to assure the navigator that in whatsoever sea he shall sail his ship he is 
protected by the Stars and Stripes of his country. All this has been done with- 
out the shedding of a drop of blood for treason or rebellion; all this while systems 
of popular representation have regularly been supported in the State govern- 
ments and in the General Government; all this while laws, National and State, 
of such a character have been passed and have been so wisely administered that 
I may stand up here to-day and declare, as I now do declare, in the face of all 
the intelligent of the age, that for the period which has elapsed from the day 
that Washington laid the foundation of this Capitol to the present time there 
has been no country upon the earth in which life, liberty, and property have 
been more amply and steadily secured or more freely enjoyed than in these 
United States of America. Who is there that will deny this? Who is there pre- 
pared with a greater or a better example ? Who is there that can stand upon 
the foundation of facts, acknowledged or proved, and assert that these our repub- 
lican institutions have not answered the true ends of Government beyond all 
precedent in human history ? 
J; There is yet another view. There are still higher considerations. Man is an 

ti ^ intellectual being, destined to immortalit}'. There is a spirit in him, and the 
.,5, breath of the Almighty hath given him understanding. Then only is he tending 
tj^ toward his own destiny while he seeks for knowledge or virtue, for the will of 
jj his Maker, and for just conceptions of his own duty. Of all important questions, 
„, therefore, let this, the most important of all, be finst asked and first answered: 
• In what country of the habitable globe of great extent and large population are 
the means of knowledge most generally diffused and enjoyed among the people? 
This question admits of one and only one answer. It is here; it is here in these 
t^nited States. It is among the descendants of those who settled at Jamestown; 
of those who were pilgrims on the shore of Plj^mouth, and of those other races of 
men who in subsequent times have become joined in this great American family. 
Let one fact incapable of doubt or dispute satisfy every mind on this point. The 
population of the United States is twenty-three millions. Now take the map of 
the continent of Europe and spread it out before you. Take your scale and your 
dividers and lay off in one area, in any shape 3'ou please, a triangle, square, circle, 
parallelogram, or trapezoid, and of an extent that shall contain one hundred and 
fifty millions of people, and there will be found within the United vStates more 
persons who do habitually read and write than can be embraced within the lines 
of your demarcation. 

But there is something more even than this. Man is not only an intellectual 
but he is also a religious being, and his religious feelings and habits require 
cultivation. 

Let the religious element in man's nature be neglected, let him be influenced 
by no higher motives than low self-interest and subjected to no stronger restraint 
than the limits of civil author it}-, and he becomes the creature of .selfish passions 
or blind fanaticism. 

The spectacle of a nation powerful and enlightened, but without Christian faith, 
has been presented almost within our own day as a warning beacon for the nations. 



Exte7ision Corner Stone 149 

On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentious- 
ness, incites to a general benevolence and the practical acknowledgment of the 
brotherhood of man, inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to 
the whole social fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward 
to the Author of its being. 

Now, I think it may be stated with truth that in no country in proportion to its 
population are there so many benevolent establishments connected with religious 
instruction — Bible, missionary, and tract societies, supported by public and private 
contributions— as in our own. There are also institutions for the education of 
the blind, the deaf and dumb; of idiots; for the reception of orphan and destitute 
children; for moral reform, designed for children and females, respectively; insti- 
tutions for the reformation of criminals; not to speak of those numerous establish- 
ments in almost every county and town in the United vStates for the reception of 
the aged, infirm, and destitute poor, many of whom have fled to our shores to 
escape the poverty and wretchedness of their condition at home. 

In the United vStates there is no church establishment or ecclesiastical authority 
founded by Government. Public worship is maintained either by voluntary asso- 
ciations and contributions or by trusts and donations of a charitable origin. 

Now, I think it safe to say that a greater proportion of the people of the United 
States attend public worship, decently clad, well behaved, and well seated, than 
of any other country of the civilized world. 

Edifices of religion are seen everywhere. Their aggregate cost would amount 
to an immense sum of monc};. They are, in general, kept in good repair and 
consecrated to the purposes of public worship. In these edifices the people reg- 
ularly assemble on the Sabbath day, which is sacredly .set apart for rest by all 
classes from secular employment and for religious meditation and worship, to listen 
to the reading of the Holy vScriptures and discourses from pious ministers of the 
several denominations. 

This attention to the wants of the intellect and of the soul, as manifested by 
the voluntary support of schools and colleges, of churches and benevolent insti- 
tutions, is one of the mo.st remarkable characteristics of the American people, 
not less strikingly exhibited in the new than in the older settlements of the 
country. 

On the spot where the first trees of the forest are felled, near the log cabins 
of the pioneers, are to be seen rising together the church and the schoolhouse. 
So has it been from the beginning, and God grant that it may thus continue! 

On other shores, above their moldering towns, 

In snllen pomp, the tall cathedral frowns; 

Simple and frail, our lowly temples throw 

Their slender shadows on the paths below; 

Scarce steals the wind that .sweeps the woodland track, 

The larch's perfume from the .settler's ax, 

Bre, like a vision of the morning air, 

His slight-framed steeple marks the house of prayer. 

* * * * * 

Yet Faith's pure hymn beneath its shelter rude 
Breathes out as sweetly to the tangled wood 
As where the rays through blazing oriels pour 
On marble shaft and tessellated floor. 

Who does not admit that this unparalleled growth of prosperity and renown is 
the result, under Providence, of the Union of these States under a general Con- 
stitution which guarantees to each State a republican form of government and 
to every man the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free 
from civil tyranny or ecclesiastical domination ? 

To bring hotne this idea to the present occasion, who does not feel that when 
President Washington laid his hand on the foundation of the first Capitol 1)uild- 



150 Capitol Centennial Celebration 

injj^ he performed a great work of perpetuation of the Union and the Constitution ? 
Who does not feel that this seat of the General Government, healthful in its 
situation, central in its position, near the mountains from whence gush fresh 
springs of wonderful virtue, teeming with nature's richest products, and yet not 
far from the bays and the great estuaries of the sea, easily accessible and gener- 
ally agreeable in climate and association, does give strength to the Union of these 
States; that this city, bearing an immortal name, with its broad streets and avenues, 
its public squares and magnificent edifices of the General Government, erected 
for the purposes of carrying on within them the important business of the several 
Departments; for the reception of wonderful and curious inventions, the preserva- 
tion of the records of American learning and genius, of extensive collections of 
the products of nature and art, brought hither for study and comparison from all 
parts of the world; adorned with numerous churches, and sprinkled over, I am 
happy to say, with many public schools, where all children of the city, without 
distinction, are provided with the means of obtaining a good education; where 
there are academies and colleges, professional schools and public libraries, should 
continue to receive, as it has heretofore received, the fostering care of Congress, 
and should be regarded as the permanent seat of the National Government? Here, 
too, a citizen of the great republic of letters, a republic which knows not the 
metes and bounds of political geography, has indicated prophetically his convic- 
tion that America is to exercise a wide and powerful influence in the intellectual 
world, and therefore has founded in this city, as a commanding position in the 
field of science and literature, and has placed under the guardianship of the Gov- 
ernment, an institution "for the increase and diflFusion of knowledge among men." 

With each succeeding year new interest is added to the spot. It becomes con- 
nected with all the historical associations of our country, with her statesmen and 
her orators, and, alas! its cemetery is annually enriched with the ashes of her 
chosen sons. 

Before us is the broad and beautiful river, .separating two of the thirteen origi- 
nal States, and which a late President, a man of determined purpose and inflexible 
will, but patriotic heart, desired to span with arches of ever-enduring granite, 
symbolical of the firmly cemented union of the North and the South. That 
President was General J.\ckson. 

On its banks repose the ashes of the Father of his Country, and at one .side, by 
a singular felicity of position, overlooking the city which he designed and which 
bears his name, rises to his memory the marble column, sublime in its simple 
grandeur and fitly intended to reach a loftier height than any similar structure 
on the surface of the whole earth. 

Ivet the votive offerings of his grateful countrymen be freely contributed to 
carry higher and still higher this monument. May I say, as on another occasion, 
"Let it rise; let it rise till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light 
of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit! " 

Fellow-citizens, what contemplations are awakened in our minds as we assemble 
here to reenact a scene like that performed by W.a.shington! Methinks I see 
his venerable form now before me as presented in the glorious statue by Houdon, 
now in the capital of Virginia. He is dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety 
seem to .soften the lineaments of his countenance. The Government over which he 
presides is yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he 
sees the world in commotion and in arms all around him. He sees that imposing 
foreign powers are half dispo.sed to try the strength of the recently established 
American Government. We perceive that mighty thoughts, mingled with fears as 
well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He heads a short procession over 
the.se, the naked fields; he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to 
the top of this eminence, whose original oaks of the forest stand as thick around 



Extension Comer Stone 151 

him as if the spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performs 
the appointed duty of the day. 

And now, fellow-citizens, if this vision were a reality; if Washington were now 
actually among us, and if he could draw around him the shades of the great 
public men of his own days, patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen, and 
were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us, "Ye men of this 
generation, I rejoice and thank God for being able to see that our labors and 
toils and sacrifices were not in vain. You are prosperous, you are happ^', you 
are grateful. The fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while 
DUTY and the i,.4W restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive confla- 
gration. Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you wish to 
preserve it; maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to establish, 
and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings; preserve the 
Union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood; 
be true to God, to your country, and to your duty. So shall the whole Eastern 
World follow the morning sun to contemplate you as a nation; so shall all suc- 
ceeding generations honor you as they honored us, and so shall that Almighty 
Power, which so graciously protected us and which now protects you, shower its 
everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity." 

Great father of your country! we heed your words; we feel their force as if you 
now uttered them with life of flesh and blood. Your example teaches us, your 
public life teaches us 3'our sense of the value of the blessings of the Union. 
Those blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste. 
Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same high 
fruition. Our honor as well as our happiness is concerned. We can not, we dare 
not, we will not betray our sacred trust. We will not filch from posterity the 
treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted to other generations. The bow 
that gilds the cloud in the heavens, the pillars that uphold the firmament, may 
disappear and fall away in the hour appointed by the will of God, but until that 
day comes or so long as our lives may last no ruthless hand shall undermine 
that bright arch of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington 
to California. 

Fellow-citizens, we must sometimes be tolerant to foll}'^ and patient at the sight 
of the extreme waywardness of men; but I confess that when I reflect on the 
renown of our past history, on our present prosperity and greatness, and on what 
the future hath yet to unfold, and when I see that there are men who can find 
in all this nothing good, nothing valuable, nothing truly glorious, I feel that all 
their reason has fled from them and left the entire control over their judgment 
and their actions to insane folly and fanaticism, and, more than all, fellow-citi- 
zens, if the purposes of fanatics and disunionists should be accomplished, the 
patriotic and intelligent of our generation would seek to hide themselves from 
the scorn of the world and go about to find dishonorable graves. 

Fellow-citizens, take courage; be of good cheer. We shall come to no such 
ignoble end. We shall live and not die. During the period allotted to our 
several lives we shall continue to rejoice in the return of this anniversary. The 
ill-omened sounds of fanaticism will be hushed; the ghostly specters of Secession 
and Disunion will disappear, and the enemies of united constitutional liberty, if 
their hatred can not be appeased, may prepare to sear their eyeballs as they behold 
the steady flight of the American Eagle on his burnished wings for years and 
years to come. 

President FiLLisiORE, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act such 
as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed fifty-eight years ago. 
You stand where he stood. You lay your hand on the corner stone of a building 
designed greatly to extend that whose corner stone he laid. Changed, changed 



152 



Capitol Centennial Celebration 



is everything aronnrl. The same sun, indeed, shone upon his head which now 
shines upon j-ours. The same broad river rolled at his feet and bathes his last 
resting place that now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly 
an open field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed, 
squares and public grounds inclosed and ornamented, until the city which bears 
his name, although comparatively inconsiderate in numbers and wealth, has 
become quite fit to be the seat of government of a great and united people. 

Sir, may the consequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously to-day 
equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only; may the principles of 
your administration and the wisdom of your political conduct be such as that 
the world of the present day and all hi.story hereafter may be at no loss to 
perceive what example you have made your study. 

Fellow-citizens, I now bring this address to a close by expressing to 3'ou, in 
the words of the great Roman orator, the deepest wish of my 
heart, and which I know deeply penetrates the hearts of all 
who hear me: "Duo modo, hsec opto; unum, uT mor- 

lENvS POPUIATM ROMANUM I.IBERUM RELINOUAM; 

hoc mihi majus a diis immortalibus dari nihil 
potest: alterum, ut ita cuique eveniat, 
ut de republica quisque mereatur. " 

And now, fellow-citizens, with 
hearts void of hatred, envy, 
and malice toward our _ - - ^ 
countrymen , or any of 




them, or toward the subjects or citizens of other Governments, or toward any 
member of the great family of man, but exulting, nevertheless, in our own 
peace, security, and happiness, in the grateful recollection of the past, and in the 
glorious hopes of the future, let us return to our homes and with all humiliation 
and devotion offer our thanks to the Father of all our mercies, political, social, and 
religiovis. 

This concluded the exercises at the Capitol, a salute of artiller>^ 
being fired from the battery on the public reservation at the north 
end of the Capitol, and the civil and military associations returned 
in excellent order to their respective places of rendezvous, where they 
were dismissed. 

The celebration of the day closed with a display of fireworks from 
the Mall south of the President's house. 




Thia sketch exfithita the fmxef locution 
oP -Samhur^h and CarroHsbtcrgy 
unci' -the a-pproxTrnaf^cf. metps anc£ 
hount/s of Q'-erf estate then embrxt- 
ceti tviihin the pTVcinda designated 
byffie Prpsident. 

hi. a£fJi 

auerU Mvertues aa wel2 <m severul 
QtJier early imfifxi^ejuera'a, yiz:JlMer 
Vtxtionii bridges, etc ,a.r*> mclicateii 
by dotted Unea, avirf the 

9eatate« in the direct I'icinity: 
acre ^tfe/i^so a^ toAteitiiaie- tfie fo- 
Cafization of present siiiiS inlheir 
reUtiutn &■ trirme>'e.ticU/eA aruiihus 
to cvmijfvte t/te nwat perfect iliuafra- 
iJon o/" t/ie Justorioal artteceeienta 
of the prciservi t^pog)yxp7ucal fkatu 
ree of oiirXaiional OxfiUaZ.^ 




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1893. 

Published by Authority of the 
Capitol Centennial Committee. 

lawrence gardner, 

Chairman. 







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